A Carson, California family is desperately missing their dogs – Athena, Bella, Fiona, Hercules, Petey and Pixie – after they were taken because one of them nipped the cable guy. Two of them were immediately executed, one has been returned, but three are still locked up because the family cannot afford to pay the shelter’s exorbitant boarding fees. Can you help?
On September 30th, a cable man came to the duplex home shared by a large family. (One of the member’s last names is Rubio, and to make it easy, we’ll refer to them as “the Rubios” because that is what the shelter calls the dogs.) A “Beware of Dog” sign is posted on the front gate, but he let himself inside and knocked on the door. Dogs being dogs, they heard the noise and came to investigate.
When the cable guy saw the dogs, he ran away, and the dogs followed. Exactly how things came to pass is unclear. The cable guy may have opened the door, or perhaps it wasn’t fully latched to begin with, or maybe the dogs knocked it open. But they chased him, and Petey bit him.
Petey was taken by animal control immediately, and on October 8th, the rest of the family’s dogs on the property that day were taken, including the ones who stayed inside the entire time, and Athena, who was tethered in the backyard during the incident. Not understanding what they were being forced to sign, one of the family members signed over Petey and Fiona. They believed that they were only surrendering the dogs, but instead, both dogs were unjustly euthanized.
The family was then told they had to get liability insurance with a minimum coverage of $300,000 per incident, as well as dog training, muzzles, etc. Feeling her hand was forced, Athena’s mom surrendered her. A woman named Alison saw the mother and her children crying while saying goodbye to their furry family member, and asked about the situation. She took a picture of Athena, which soon went viral on the internet. Patti and Yoko, two of the women who had seen the photo, came to the Rubio home to tell them that they and many others wanted to help.
It was soon decided the Lexus Project needed to be contacted about getting the dogs back. An extension was put on the hearing while a suitable attorney could be found. On November 20th, it was determined three of the dogs – Athena, Pixie and Hercules – were “potentially dangerous.” The fourth dog, Bella, was safe.
To bring the dogs back home, the family had to make sure they had the insurance, training, outdoor kennels, muzzles and specific collars – within two weeks. They did. Meanwhile, the dogs have been held in the shelter for two months, and the boarding fees have added up. Bella was just recently released, but Pixie, Hercules and Athena are still waiting to come home. The shelter delayed their inspection of the home – twice – causing more fees to add up, but then said they are delaying the inspection because the bill has not been paid in full.
There is a YouCaring fundraiser set up to help bring these sweet and loving bonded littermates home to their family, who feels incomplete without them. The fundraiser goal is $15,000, but the family only needs about $1,500 more than what has been raised thus far (about $2,500) to bring their babies home – the rest is for legal fees. If you would like to help bring Hercules, Athena and Pixie home, please click here.
If you would like more information or to see more photos, please click here.
