Rescued dogs in animal hoarding cases continue to find new homes

Volunteers and the Coachella Valley Animal Campus coordinated on Monday to transport eight dogs from the shelter in Thousand Palms to other shelters in Central California.

In a post to the shelter's Facebook page, the Coachella Valley Animal Campus writes that Christina Courcier, a volunteer, found two rescue organizations — Iron Paw Rescue and Peace of Mind Dog Rescue — that accepted the dogs.

Other volunteers, like local volunteer Pam Murray and networker Rene Coffey, helped organize the transport. Animal Samaritans, a group that transports cats and dogs to animal rescues nationwide, drove six of the dogs, while the remaining two were brought in a volunteer's personal car. The drive took over seven hours in one direction.

"They left here about 11:30 [in the morning] yesterday, and then they got back to the shelter at about 6:30 this morning," explained Madi Dvorak, the Adoption Alliance Rescue Supervisor with Animal Samaritans. She praised the volunteers who drove around the clock, "They drove through the whole night and they are rock stars."

Eight dogs were transported in total. According to the shelter, two of the dogs were dogs that had been rescued during last week's animal hoarding case in Thermal. The other six were dogs that had been at the shelter the longest.

Carie Broecker, Executive Director and co-founder of Peace of Mind Dog Rescue, says her rescue in Pacific Grove is taking in two of the dogs. The rescue's veterinary clinic will examine the dogs before they're assessed at the rescue's office. The rescue will then put them on their website in search of their forever home.

Coachella Valley Animal Campus staff are ecstatic about the willingness of volunteers to help. Damien Cruz, the Supervising Animal Services Counselor, is optimistic after seeing the effort the volunteers put into this challenge. He says, "We hope this kind of keeps up the momentum and we're really looking forward to getting more of these [animals] out of here."

While the eight dogs that were transported on Monday helps the shelter's overcrowding problem, the shelter remains overcrowded. Officials say they're still looking for people to adopt or foster these dogs.

Adoptions will remain free for the remainder of the month in an effort to help the overcrowding issue.

More information about adoptions and services at the Coachella Valley Animal Campus is available on their website.