ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. — The St. Johns Sheriff’s Office says that roughly 30 chihuahuas were dumped off of US-1 and County Road 204 on Monday evening.
Caroline Johnson, the owner of the Saving Missing Animal Response Team in Flagler County, said she assembled a team of about 30 volunteers to rescue the dogs that same night after receiving a phone call alerting her to the situation.
“The priority was to get as many of the more social ones that were coming up to us and secure them in crates first, and then work on the scared ones,” Johnson said. “It took us maybe three, three and a half hours of wrangling who we could, and then some of them ran off into the woods and down about a quarter mile each direction.”
She says the team has been able to rescue 19 dogs so far.
“All have mangy fleas, you know, kind of very skinny, malnourished, most of them, a lot of them have skin allergies,” Johnson said. “Most of the females look like they’ve probably had litters before, possibly pregnant now, so we’re just trying to work through them one at a time and get them cleaned up.”
SMART Flagler is still actively looking for the four or five dogs they suspect are still roaming around the highway. Johnson says that three of the original estimated 30, unfortunately, were hit by cars and died.
Johnson says she suspects this may have been a “backyard, breeder, hoarding” situation.
Due to the dogs’ condition, Johnson says adoption applications will not be accepted for at least a week. She says she wants to make sure all of them are healthy and safe before helping them find their forever home.
At the time, the St. Johns Sheriff’s Office is still looking for the one(s) responsible.
To help the rescue nurse the dogs back to health or put in an adoption or foster application, visit the link here.
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