As The Economist noted earlier this month, Missouri has more than 1,400 licensed commercial dog-breeding operations that produce an estimated one million puppies a year. That’s enough to supply about 40 percent of the puppies to all pet shops across the nation. Missouri breeders have come increasingly under scrutiny, however, by groups like the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which has witnessed “horrific” conditions, including massive operations that are unclean and leave some mothers spending their lives in wire-floored cages unable to walk on solid ground.

Until recently, the business in that state was largely unmonitored, and fines were so low that breeders who broke the law could easily include fines as a cost of doing business. But a new law there limits breeders to 50 dogs, resulting in a flood of canines to Colorado. Thirty dogs were recently brought to the Denver Dumb Friends League, another 40 will go to the Humane Society of Pikes Peak, and 25 to the National Mill Dog Rescue Group, reports 9News.

“If we’re able to help out these animals and have the space, we’ll take them in because we’d rather them have the chance at finding a loving home than being at a puppy mill or ending up euthanized or in another situation,” Michelle Ray of the Dumb Friends League tells CBS4.