A good Samaritan and a team at the Helen Woodward Animal Center saved seven pug puppies after the litter was found discarded in a dumpster behind a Lemon Grove Taco Bell, officials said.
The puppies were found Dec. 17 when a homeless person was searching through the fast food restaurant’s trash, animal center officials said. The person who found the dogs then handed them to a woman in a paper bag.
Not knowing how to care for the animals, the woman took them to the animal center, officials said. Veterinarians said the puppies were only hours old and in need of immediate care.
Due to the around-the-clock treatment the litter would need, the animal center’s foster department lined up bottle-feeding foster families to pick the puppies up within 30 minutes of their arrival, officials said.
“We labeled them ‘terrier blends’ but they were so tiny and new, we knew that they could be just about anything,” said Kendall Schulz, director for the center’s adoption services. “When any litter that young arrives seeking care, we know how fragile they are, and our primary concern simply becomes doing everything we can to save their lives.”
Staff said the puppies’ first few weeks of care were “touch-and-go.” One of the eight puppies died because it was too weak.
However, the surviving seven continued to make a recovery in spite of the challenging odds, officials said. The center gave them the nickname the “Rainbow Puppies” — naming them each after one of the seven colors in the rainbow — due to the lucky circumstances around their rescue and recovery.
But the center said the dogs had another surprise in store for the animal center’s staff. As the puppies grew and opened their eyes, the staff learned they weren’t terriers, but rather pugs.
Officials then began to speculate that the dogs were a litter thrown away by an unlicensed backyard breeder.
“When puppies become a business to unlicensed breeders, there is very little value placed on their lives,” said Schulz. “When they are viewed as a product instead of a living being, their survival can often come down to costs and profits.”
The Rainbow Puppies will be ready for adoption starting at 10 a.m. Friday, animal center officials said. Their adoptions will be made on a first-come-first-served basis.
For more information, contact the adoption department at (858) 756-4117 ext. 1, or visit animalcenter.org.
