They weren’t all Teacups, but they were small, they were in trouble, and Bay Area dog people came to their rescue.
The Marin Humane Society (MHS) organized Operation Tiny Teacup to rescue 100 small-breed dogs from a puppy mill in Arizona, where a couple was busted for keeping more than 750 puppies in deplorable conditions at their rural property. They were marketing the dogs as Teacup Chihuahuas. A number of reptiles and 36 parrots were also confiscated.
Keri Fennell, Director of Customer Care at MHS, happened to be attending a conference in Tucson, Arizona when local authorities busted the operation. In this kind of crisis, MHS has a lot to offer: 1) plenty of land at their facility in Novato; 2) plenty of financial and volunteer support from the Marin community; and 3) experience in dealing with a sudden influx of animals, having accepted 550 dogs evacuated in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Fennell alerted her colleagues at MHS and the group agreed to take some of the burden off the Tucson Humane Society.
“The people at the Tucson center were great,” said Fennell. “They had a good system going.” The hundreds of squirming puppies got vaccinated, examined, and groomed in record time. Meanwhile, MHS Customer Care Supervisor Brigitte Coleman flew to Tucson to help Fennell transport the puppies back to Marin. They outfitted a truck with a large number of crates that could be secured during travel and procured plenty of food and water for the long drive.
To reduce stress on the dogs, they decided to make the trip from Tucson to the Bay Area without stopping overnight. They left shortly after seven on the morning of March 13 and reached MHS after 10pm. “It didn’t really hit us until we got to Oakland, and then we were really tired,” said Fennell. How about the tiny dogs? “They were stressed and really quiet,” she said.
Word of the puppies’ plight preceded their arrival. MHS Communications Manager Carrie Harrington sent out an advisory and the response was tremendous “It broke our fax machine!” said Harrington. Over 600 faxes came in, and people also used the phone and the MHS website to pledge more than $17K to help take care of the new arrivals. Total donations to Operation Tiny Teacup are expected to top $20K.
Applications from willing puppy parents also poured in. All of the dogs from Arizona were quickly adopted, and Harrington notes that the publicity also alerted people to other animals at the shelter that need good homes.
“We’re lucky to be in a place where people support what we do,” said Harrington. And so are a bunch of little tiny doggies from Arizona.
Kathleen Maher is a freelance writer living in Tiburon, California. Some of her best friends have been dogs.
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