Animal Services Recommends a Crate Next Time
A woman showed up at the county’s shelter in Jurupa Valley with a group of dogs following her in a Pied Piper-like style.
Riverside County Animal Services employees and one veteran volunteer scrambled to scoop up the pooches. All told, she brought a baker’s dozen to the shelter. Some didn’t follow her, though, and darted underneath a car in the parking lot.
Shelter surveillance footage captured the moments she arrived and the somewhat tense moments as the employees tried to coax the puppies into the shelter’s admission area.
“We’d like to use this oddball story to say, No. 1, you can avoid a 13-puppy situation in the first place if you spay or neuter your pet,” Animal Services Director Robert Miller said. “Secondly, don’t bring loose dogs to our shelters. We’ll come out to your car if you don’t have a crate or the necessary restraints.”
The Western Riverside County/City Animal Shelter in Jurupa Valley is located adjacent to Van Buren Boulevard – one of the county’s busiest thoroughfares. “We would have hated to see one of these pups run out to the street and get hit by a car,” Miller said.
Once all the puppies were collected and properly impounded, Animal Services’ veterinary team members conducted examinations and then the four-legged friends were transported to the available kennel areas. Some of the pups, all 11-week-old, pit bull mixes, have already been adopted.
Several are still available – just in time for the Inland Empire Super Adoption event this weekend.
The event is a partnership with Best Friends Animal Society and other organizations. It runs at the shelter (6851 Van Buren Blvd., Jurupa Valley), 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday (Sept. 8 & 9). Adoption fees are just $20 for all pets – and that still includes the animal’s spay or neuter surgery, vaccinations and a microchip.
