Around Town: Chihauhuas and pit bulls can fly
We were at the Huntington Medical Research Institutes open house in Pasadena when one of the board members mentioned her support for a special project at the Pasadena Humane Society.
If you look at the Pasadena Humane Society website, the dogs you’ll see available for adoption include pit bulls, pit bull mixes, Chihuahuas and Chihuahua mixes.
According to the Wall Street Journal, more than 30% of the dogs euthanized in Southern California are Chihuahuas. A lot of them come from low-income neighborhoods where they are not neutered. The Chihuahua, like Dr. Ruth, proves that size doesn’t matter when it comes to proclivity.
The problem for the Chihuahua is that the shelters on the West Coast are full of them, even though the breed (and mixes) are popular on the East Coast.
In 2011, the Richmond, Va. SPCA partnered with the Pasadena Humane Society for the Great Chihuahua Airlift. Hundreds of Chihuahuas flew from California to Richmond, where a representative reported, “We named the first dog from that first transport ‘Pasadena’ in honor of her hometown, and she was an instant media darling. Pasadena and the other dogs on the Great Chihuahua Airlift were greeted by news crews from local TV stations as well as a reporter and photographer from the Richmond Times-Dispatch.”
Who knew that the Chihuahua could be so popular? We Californians are gobsmacked.
California shelters, overall, have what is called a “high kill rate.” Hundreds of thousands of dogs are euthanized in Southern California each year.
One nonprofit, Wings of Rescue, comprised of private pilots, organized regular airlifts to save dogs and even cats by flying them to new homes in Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana. Wings of Rescue partners with many animal shelters, including the County of Los Angeles and the Palm Springs Animal Shelter.
The Wings of Rescue people estimate that 4 to 6 million cats and dogs are killed every year in shelters across the U.S. and that spaying and neutering is the answer, but there presently are homes available in other parts of the U.S. for these animals. The missing link is the air transport.
I reckon the fact I’m writing this means that we are coming to terms with the loss of the late, great Miss Audrey Hepburn, our black Labrador mix rescue dog from the Pasadena Humane Society. Occasionally we look at photos from their website, but it’s pit bull, pit bull, Chihuahua, Chihuahua. The Cat, who turned 19 this week, would not take kindly to either breed.
But the shining light in this bittersweet story is the Chihuahua. Undervalued and underfed, California’s Chihuahua mixes have a bright future in places like Maine, Connecticut and Virginia, where people buy them matching sweaters and Paris Hilton-style designer carriers.
Those are some lucky dogs.
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ANITA SUSAN BRENNER is a longtime La Cañada Flintridge resident and an attorney with Law Offices of Torres and Brenner in Pasadena. Email her at anitasusan.brenner@yahoo.com and follow her on Twitter @anitabrenner.