Adopting the Dearborn dogs

The top local news story lately has been the removal of hundreds of Chihuahuas from a Dearborn home owned by a man who was mentally ill.
The dogs lived in squalor, some were found dead and frozen in freezers and there’s been some talk that the house might not be salvageable.
That’s a serious mess.
Donations have been pouring into the Dearborn animal shelter that is caring for the dogs, and so have inquiries about adoptions.
The latest I heard on the TV news was that the dogs won’t be available for adoption for a while yet. They need some medical attention — I’d assume most need to be spayed or neutered and that all need to be updated on vaccinations.
For more than 100 dogs, the process will take a while.
The shelter also needs some time to evaluate the dogs. I’m sure they’ll find a host of behavioral challenges with these little dogs.
For those of you who have your mind set on rescuing one of these little Chihuahuas and are willing to wait until they’re available, I ask you to be prepared.
Animal hoarders, unfortunately, aren’t that uncommon. Watch an episode of Animal Cops on the Animal Planet and you’ll find that agencies are constantly dealing with hoarders.
Sometimes, animals owned by pet hoarders don’t have behavioral problems. It all depends on the degree to which the owner hoarding.
When a person collects too many animals, especially in the case of the Dearborn man where it appears the Chihuahuas were breeding and overran the entire home, the animals don’t get exposure to a normal life.
Oftentimes, cats found in the home of a hoarder are feral. It can be unusual to find even one cat that can be saved from those situations.
Dogs are much easier to rehabilitate and reintroduce to our society. Tomorrow, I’ll post about some of the behavioral problems these dogs are likely to have.
My goal is lend to some advice. These dogs can become our family members. It’s just going to take a little knowledge and some time and work from us.