Posted on 04/12/2006 3:24:37 PM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
1:44 p.m. April 12, 2006
Animal control officers confiscated 28 tiny puppies that were stuffed under and taped into the front seat of a van that was trying to cross into the United States from Mexico, authorities announced Wednesday.
The dogs ranged in age from three to five weeks old and included boxers, Chihuahuas, cocker spaniels and poodle mixes, said Dawn Danielson, director of the county's Department of Animal Services.
They were jammed under the front seat of the van and a Customs agent saw a paw sticking out, Danielson said.
Some of the puppies are sick and all require some type of medical care, said Danielson. The dogs are so young they are just past the stage where they would have to be fed by bottle.
It is still too premature to tell if they all will survive, she said. Some of the smaller ones are questionable.
The driver of the van was cited for 28 counts of animal cruelty. He told officers he was on his way to a Los Angeles area swap meet to sell them.
Most of the pups are at the county shelter in Linda Vista, although some of them were taken to an emergency veterinary clinic. The dogs will be put into foster care until they are at least 8 weeks old and then they will be put up for adoption.
Danielson said dogs will continue to be smuggled across the border as long as there is a demand. She warned consumers not to buy dogs at swap meets and on street corners because they likely could end up with a sick animal that could die.
Go to a shelter instead, she said.
County Animal Services
These are among the 28 puppies confiscated at the border today.
Please ping to doggie list.
My daughter was a U.S. Customs Inspector at the San Ysidro (Tijuana) crossing for years and you wouldn't believe what she caught crossing (including acouple half-cooked bodies wrapped around car engines.)
Just doing the puppy milling that American puppy mills won't do.
A shelter is a safer place to get an animal?
I did it once, won't do it again.
Swap meets are pretty fun and lots of people and undercover on the lookout. This guy wouldn't have lasted long on the loose.
Actually it is. If the animal is obviously sick, it will be kept out of the adoption area. And, at least at the ones I've seen, vets examine every animal and many are given shots, de-wormed and groomed.
Swap meets are no place to adopt an animal.
Illegals will continue to blatanly ignore our borders as long as there are crooked employers.
You'd think they would have all been border collies....;-)
~groan~ ;~D
Were they just to sell pups, or to smuggle drugs? !%#!@$#
"Danielson said dogs will continue to be smuggled across the border as long as there is a demand. She warned consumers not to buy dogs at swap meets and on street corners because they likely could end up with a sick animal that could die.
Go to a shelter instead, she said."
I find this ironic. There's some chance the very dogs from swaps and abused over the border END UP AT SHELTERS! So what's the difference? Only that maybe the shelter has taken care of any problems they had.
And Border Terriers.
Or Rhodesian Wetbacks.....
I recommend adopting from a good Breed Rescue Group. THe animals are checked by a vet and "fostered" in families until they are ready for adoption. That way the new owner gets a "heads up" on the animals' likes, dislikes, fears, etc. A requirement to take the dog to obedience classes is usually part of the deal.
Good shelters know all of the breed rescue groups in their areas and usually turn over any pure breds, or pure bred "looking", dogs to the rescue group.
Of course a shelter is a good place to adopt a mut and mutts make very fine pets. Often the cross breeding means that they are not as subject to disease as some of the pure breds.
I adopted a beautiful Golden Retriever from a rescue group in Wisconsin 4 years ago, and my daughter adopted an equally fine Standard Poodle from a group in Manhatten 3 years ago. Both dogs happened to be named Max.
YOU OWE ME A KEYBOARD!!!!
Perfect! ROTFLMAO!
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