“Lucky” the hound dog caught a break.
He was one of 32 dogs — largely from Orange County Animal Care — that were abandoned by the Woofy Acres animal rescue at a Rowland Heights kennel.
Lucky and seven others have recently been placed and five more are in the adoption pipeline. Most of the dogs, however, are still stranded, which worries staffers at the Shanderin Kennels. Some of the dogs have been there for two years, but Woofy Acres of Porter Ranch stopped paying for their board and care in October. The dogs were supposed to be at the kennel on a temporary basis.
“We’re just heartbroken that someone was able to give up on so many dogs,” said Samantha Redline, a vet tech at Shanderin Kennels.
Redline said the kennel has been unable to reach Woofy Acres President Dianne Bedford for months. Meanwhile, the costs continue to mount, with the rescue now owing $40,000 to the kennel. Besides boarding costs, the dogs eat 40 pounds of food a day.
“We were in panic mode because we didn’t know what to do,” Redline said.
Without help, the kennel would have to send the dogs — like Apache, Milo and Rascal — to the already crowded Los Angeles County animal shelter in Baldwin Park.
“We’re upset, trying to do whatever it takes to get them taken care of,” she said.
Especially troubling to animal activists is that Orange County Animal Care has released 128 dogs to Woofy Acres since 2019, according to county records compiled by activist Michael Mavrovouniotis.
“The Orange County shelter just takes the view that we don’t care who takes the animals as long as we get them off our books,” Mavrovouniotis said. “We have reason to be worried.”
He believes Orange County Animal Care should do a better job of screening animal rescues and following up on placements.
“It’s part of (Orange County’s) reliance on rescues,” Mavrovouniotis said. “The shelter is not doing enough to make adoptions easier and their safety valve is to push as…
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