Northbrook's Border Tails Rescue takes in 43 Chihuahuas from Indiana hoarding case

Border Tails Rescue, a 4-year-old nonprofit animal rescue and welfare organization in Northbrook, took in dozens of dogs March 22 after a house fire in northwest Indiana revealed a hoarding case involving 43 Chihuahuas and 48 cats.

None of the animals had been spayed or neutered, said Border Tails founder and executive director Harleigh Garcia. She figured the situation just got out of control.

“Let's just say you have five dogs or seven dogs, they're all getting pregnant and the babies are getting pregnant. You could have 30, 50 dogs in a one-year period,” she said.

Animal control officers followed up at the house, whose owner surrendered all the animals. A rescue networking group Border Tails works with, Rescueber, contacted the Northbrook group. Staffers quickly hit the road to pick up the animals.

“This is the largest hoarding case where we've taken all the dogs,” Garcia said. “I wouldn't say it's normal, but you do see it in rescue.”

Most of the animals were 1 or 2 years old, with several sets of mothers and puppies and a bonded pair of “super-seniors.”

“For my staff, there was never any pause,” Garcia said, despite the shelter already housing more than 100 dogs with 50 more in foster care awaiting permanent owners.

Border Tails works only with dogs. The cats remained with animal control, which was working to distribute them to foster-based rescue facilities.

The day of their arrival at the scene in Indiana, Border Tails established a Facebook fundraising site with a goal of raising $21,000 toward the incoming animals' medical care and treatment, around $500 per Chihuahua. As of midafternoon on April 2, 114 donations had provided $6,011.

The dogs did carry fleas, some of the dogs had skin issues and others had “cherry eye,” or inflamed eyelids, but Garcia said because the dogs were kept inside they were in decent shape.

“Overall, everyone is pretty healthy,” Garcia said.

Thirty-three of the dogs, including a mother with two puppies, were scheduled to leave Border Tails for new families last Thursday and Friday, mainly to homes in Illinois with a few headed to Indiana, Garcia said.

On Sunday, only six of the dogs available for adoption remained. Others will become available once pregnant females deliver new litters.

Most of the adoptive families saw the Chihuahua rescue on Border Tails' Facebook site or through news reports.

“We didn't really have to do any extra marketing,” Garcia said.

To adapt to their new environment, the dogs either had to go in pairs or to a home with another Chihuahua-sized dog. All the dogs available for adoption had been cleared by a veterinarian, Garcia said, and the adoptive families were told of any medical issues.

Garcia said it was a quiet group of animals, very little barking, no biting, tails wagging. As they got used to the Border Tails kennel, dogs who had stayed toward the rear started coming to the front to see people.

“Overall, they're very grateful. I think they're happy,” Garcia said.

Border Tails moved to Northbrook from Des Plaines in February 2022.

“This happened to be what caught everyone's attention,” Garcia said, “but there's something crazy going on here all the time.”