OLATHE, Kan. -- The Humane Society of the United States claimed Friday that many Petland stores across the country support "cruel puppy mills."

The organization announced the results of what it called an eight-month investigation into the Petland chain.

"If you purchase a puppy from a store like Petland, you don't know where the puppy came from," said Mary Prewitt, the director of The Humane Society of the United States in Kansas. "And the changes are very good that you're patronizing one of these mass breeders."

The Petland in Olathe is a franchise store. James Connell just bought the store last week.

Connell said his puppies come from a credible distributor and said he would only buy well-cared-for animals.

"All of our puppies here at this Petland store come through The Hunte Corporation, which has the best facilities in the world," Connell said.

Asked how he could guarantee that his puppies weren't bred in substandard conditions, Connell said, "because I believe in the system there."

The Humane Society disagreed and said they believed The Hunte Corporation did business with breeders with substandard conditions.

"What Hunte does is further the puppy mill industry by being a broker for their puppies."

The Olathe Petland store was open about its breeding information. The Humane Society didn’t find any evidence that the Olathe Petland store had purchased any dogs directly from a substandard breeder.

"We would never buy our puppies from substandard breeders," Connell said.

The Humane Society said not all breeders were bad.

The Hunte Corporation, located two hours south of Olathe, said the puppy came first and that they were committed to doing the right thing.

They said they do not deal with breeders who don't have the same commitment that they do, and they added that The Humane Society does the investigation every year.

They believe it's an exposé so The Humane Society can increase donations each and every year at about this time of the year.