The Golden State Finds Itself With a Chihuahua Overload

California is known for many things: warm weather, palm trees, surfing, Hollywood. In fact, the land of make believe is finding itself under fire for a state-specific Chihuahua overload, which is one distinction California appears eager to lose.

California animal welfare and rescue workers have found themselves in the unique position of having too many Chihuahuas in need of permanent homes. The glut, some believe, directly relates to the recent attention the breed has received in movies and television, with many calling the phenomenon the “Paris Hilton Syndrome.”

The real story appears slightly more complicated than simply blaming a Chihuahua-toting heiress, although no one denies the very bright spotlight shining on the breed of late has played a significant role in the problem.

“Part of it is the influence of Hollywood,” says spcaLA president Madeline Bernstein. “It happens every time there’s a movie or a popular dog for some reason. You can go all the way back to Lassie ruining it for Collies and Rin Tin Tin ruining it for Shepherds and, of course, the Dalmatian [movies].”

Chihuahuas in particular, Bernstein says, have always been listed as one of the more popular breeds to begin with.

Chihuahua fever, though, appears to have been sparked as far back as the 1990s. That was the age of the memorable Taco Bell commercials, in which an adorable talking Chihuahua declares “Yo quiero Taco Bell!” and Madonna, ever the beacon of what’s fashionable, was spotted carting around a Chihuahua named Chiquita everywhere she went, including her highly publicized Human Nature video. Chiquita and her buddies Rosita and Evita later ended up in rescue after Madonna morphed into another incarnation.

More recently, the Chihuahua Bruiser turned up as Reese Witherspoon’s companion in the movie Legally Blonde. Britney Spears and hotel heiress and pop culture icon Paris Hilton, whose dog Tinkerbell also co-starred with her on The Simple Life, tucked their respective Chihuahuas under their arms for red carpet appearances, and they had starring roles in the film Beverly Hills Chihuahua, along with actress Jamie Lee Curtis.

Interest in the diminutive breed increased and enthusiasts rushed to get one of their own. But many lost interest in their new dogs or ended up with a heap of behavioral or veterinary issues after getting a Chihuahua that was bred more to supply the demand than for health and temperament. Often, too, new dog owners don’t take care and training into consideration.

“Very often people think, ‘How cool. I can go to the store and get a pink shirt and the Chihuahua can get a pink shirt,’” Bernstein says. “And suddenly they realize that the dog also pees, the dog also poops, it’s expensive to go to the veterinarian. You may not be able to take the dog with you on vacation and so the novelty of having an accessory becomes enlightened by the reality of having a pet and the two don’t match. I think what you see here are these impulse purchases of this really cute dog or this need to have what appears to be an essential accessory and not realizing that the dog is a dog and not a necklace.”

There are other likely reasons contributing to the exploding Chi (as they’re often affectionately called) population in rescues and shelters. The troubled economy, record foreclosures, poorly bred dogs and not everyone following Bob Barker’s advice to spay and neuter pets are other culprits. So the problem is less of a single-source cause and more of a perfect storm of different things coming together at once to form a disaster.

By some estimates, abandoned Chihuahuas make up approximately 30 percent of the canine population in California rescues and shelters.

“I couldn’t tell you the exact percentage because it changes every day, dogs come in and out every day, but we are definitely seeing a lot more—obviously a lot more—Chihuahuas than we did before,” Bernstein says. “A few years ago over the course of the year we had about 250 Chihuahuas and this year [2009] we’ve already had 500.”

While it’s tough to determine an exact percentage, the numbers of Chihuahuas in shelters remains disproportionately high. It’s not a problem rescues and shelters have had in other states.

“We don’t have an overabundance of small lap dogs,” says Tammy DeVito, animal care director of the Humane Society for Greater Nashua in Nashua, N.H. “There are some toy dogs in breed rescue groups for when people want specific breeds but in shelters we don’t see very many of them.”

California shelters and rescues are currently so overrun with Chihuahuas that Laurel Kinder, president of Kinder4Rescue in Studio City, conceived the idea of contacting facilities in other states to see if they were interested in the overflow.

“I had no idea that there were so many small dogs languishing in shelters on the west coast,” says DeVito, whose shelter began working with Kinder on the proposed project. Kinder found the Greater Nashua shelter because her daughter lives near the area.

“When she contacted me,” DeVito says, “we went through the logistics of how we would get this done and we discussed what the criteria was as far as accepting dogs from out of state and there are legal requirements that we have to meet.”

It was a process, says DeVito, that took several months and included research, legalities and paperwork. DeVito wanted to make sure the dogs she received were healthy and had sound temperaments—good, worthy dogs that she could place in homes. In turn, Kinder wanted to ensure the dogs were going to a safe facility that would find them loving, permanent homes.

But there was a hitch: The cost of getting dogs from one state to another is not nominal. In this case, the cost for getting 25 Chihuahuas from the west to east coast ran in the several thousands. Kinder approached Grey’s Anatomy actress Katherine Heigl, who founded the animal welfare organization Jason Debus Heigl Foundation, to see if she would fund the Chihuahuas’ passage.

“Katherine Heigl is a sponsor of some of our dogs already at our regular rescue so I approached [the foundation] with the idea and they liked it,” says Kinder.

Twenty of the dogs went to the Nashua Humane Society and the other five to Salem Animal Rescue League.

Thanks to local media coverage of the Chihuahuas arriving at the airport, the public became aware of the Chihuahuas in need. Staff got the Chihuahuas settled and on the morning they became available for adoption, 40 people hoping to claim one of the 20 California lap dogs lined up two hours before the shelter opened. Within two hours, all the California Chihuahuas had found homes.

“We had great success in the first transport,” DeVito says, as she prepares for a shipment of 22 more Chihuahuas and other small dogs. “The first transport was a trial because we wanted to make sure that everything was what we thought it would be. And I think it was what we thought it would be and more.”

Such transfer programs will continue as long as sponsors are willing to help with flight costs, Kinder says.

The spcaLA Chihuahuas were not part of the coast-to-coast transfer, but Bernstein says she was recently approached by two potential donors offering to help fund transfers. At press time no details had been worked out yet.

Still, that’s good news because the Chihuahua overpopulation may take time to correct itself.

“I think it’s going to be continuing,” Bernstein says. “As long as the demand is up, the suppliers will supply. The only way to stop this is for people to realize that there is no longer a demand. There are plenty of Chihuahuas already here. There’s no need to make more and distribute those first. Then the suppliers will have no purchasers and then they’ll stop.”

PHOTOS: The Los Angeles Times, CBS News, USA Today, Famouschihuahua.com

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