The pack of dogs had been roaming onto an oil field in Oxnard, traipsing onto private property and walking perilously close to vehicular traffic.
When Ventura County Animal Services workers, responding to a police call about the pack, showed up to a homeless encampment near a river bottom in west Oxnard on Monday, they found — and removed — 22 dogs, including eight puppies.
They were of mixed breeds. They had a range of ages.
And their removal from the site near 5th Street and Harbor Boulevard, close to the West Montalvo Oil Field, adds to the growing capacity problem at Ventura County Animal Services, which has two shelters now operating at about 130% capacity, the agency said in a statement.
“We are hopeful that our community will rally around these dogs to get them adopted or out with rescues quickly,” the statement read.
The dogs — whose removal was aided by Oxnard municipal animal safety workers and the nonprofit Dog Days Search & Rescue — were taken to a county animal shelter, where each will be spayed or neutered, vaccinated, treated for fleas, and microchipped before being made available for adoption, the county said.
“They are safe,” Dominic Wassil, a Ventura County animal services officer, said in a social media video, adding that “our shelter is very full at the moment.”
The video showed many of the dogs standing together on a dusty site, near dry brush, barking and wagging their tails. The county said they congregated around a homeless encampment and that “they were also going on private property and impeding work at the oil field.”
The county statement said they seemed mostly healthy but “are scared and will need patience, time and love.”
Ventura County Animal Services, in a lengthy response to a commenter on Facebook, wrote that the dogs “are not at risk of euthanasia simply for entering the shelter or due to their circumstances.”
“We will only consider euthanasia for animals who are irremediably suffering due to illness or injury, have poor quality of life, or who are unsafe to place in the community,” the agency wrote. “We are optimistic that each of these pups will be safely handleable and make great companions with a little time and patience, and that we can get them altered and adopted out or [rescued] quickly.”
All of the dogs were vaccinated on Monday, the agency added.
“We provide support to many unhoused people and their pets, but 20 dogs at large is a safety concern both for the dogs and for people in the area,” the agency wrote. “Leaving these dogs in the area to continue breeding … developing worsening behaviors as a ‘pack,’ to be hit by cars, or to eventually starve was not an option.”
The pack likely started as a small group, dumped by their owners, that grew and multiplied when people in the area started feeding them, the county said. Only one, when scanned by the animal control officers, had a microchip.
In response to one commenter who suggested the dogs would have a worse outlook at the county shelter, Ventura County Animal Services wrote that while “times are tough right now” with so many animals needing shelter and rescue, “we know there are still people out there willing and able to help.”
Days ago, the agency wrote, “three amazing large dogs” were adopted after being in the shelter for more than 200 days.
“We think we’ve all earned a little hope,” the agency wrote.
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