OGDEN, Utah - Animal shelter officials say most of the 29 chihuahuas police rescued during a meth bust in Ogden several weeks ago have been adopted after the community rallied together to offer them homes, food and supplies.
Police found the dogs during a meth drug bust on October 14 in Ogden. There were 31 chihuahuas in the home, and 29 of them were taken to the Weber County Animal Shelter, where shelter officials say community members stepped up to adopt them.
The Gutierrez family, from Rigby, Idaho, drove to Utah to adopt one of the dogs.
"This is George," said Deborah Gutierrez while her kids were holding their new puppy.
Gutierrez and her daughter, Caitlyn, read about the puppies needing a home in the newspaper and decided to adopt one.
"They need to be loved," Gutierrez said. "We don't want no dog to be put down, and we're just grateful that we're a family that wants to help out little doggies that were in a bad situation."
The family picked up George on Friday, but there's still almost a dozen dogs that need homes.
"We have applications on a couple more, we're working with some foster and rescue groups to take some of these that maybe just aren't quite social enough to place under the adoption program just yet," said Lt. Chad Ferrin, director of Animal Services for Weber County.
Ferrin says most of the dogs are in good health. But, the animal shelter took in more than 60 cats from one home and more than 20 from another home in two separate hoarding cases in the past year.
"And then to have this dog hoarding case on top of that," he said. "This is actually our third hoarding case this year for us as a shelter."
He says it's difficult to house the animals because of the demand they put on the shelter's resources.
"You've got that much more to clean, that much more disease that you're trying to control because these animals are all kept in an isolated area, so if one gets sick, they all get sick," Ferrin said.
He says any donations will help the shelter care for the animals.
"We can always use the resources," Ferrin said. "We'll always need those types of things: the cleaning supplies, the food, anything that anyone wants to donate, we're willing to take and utilize to help better the lives of these pets and get them healthy and get them adopted."
For more information about how to adopt the remaining 11 pets, you can call the Weber County Animal Shelter at 801-339-8244 or visit their website.
