Inside Pam Bondi's aggressive push to crack down on animal cruelty crimes
A politically connected nonprofit animal shelter helped steer Bondi on DOJ's approach on animal cruelty crimes and their prosecution.
Updated on: April 9, 2026 / 4:57 PM EDT / CBS News
In early 2026, then-Attorney General Pam Bondi's Justice Department took an unusually rapid approach to animal welfare enforcement, as part of her push to use the criminal justice system to crack down on animal cruelty.
Around New Year's Eve, Bondi received a voicemail and a text from her friend Lauree Simmons, the founder of the Florida-based Big Dog Ranch Rescue, who told her that a German Shepherd breeder in East Texas was shooting her dogs, sources with direct knowledge told CBS News.
Simmons also texted another friend, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, to alert her.
In less than two weeks, Bondi's office assembled a multi-agency team, and USDA agents executed a search warrant at the property of breeder Kristine Hicks, who was already facing state cruelty charges.
Hicks relinquished her dogs, and they were eventually shipped to Big Dog Ranch Rescue for adoption. She was indicted in March on a misdemeanor of operating without a USDA license and a felony wire fraud count stemming from her misrepresentation of the dogs' lineage to buyers. USDA investigators uncovered her false statements about the dogs when they conducted DNA tests — a highly unusual investigative step — according to multiple sources who spoke with CBS News.