15 rescued puppies given CDC reprieve
Fifteen French bulldog puppies that were rescued from an O’Hare International Airport warehouse were given a reprieve by federal authorities Friday and can remain in the U.S. permanently, the group that rescued them said.
Members of Chicago French Bulldog Rescue said they are working out the final details of an agreement the organization has reached with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Royal Jordanian Air, the carrier that transported the dogs to O’Hare in late August.
The rescue group was granted full custody and ownership of the puppies, which will be quarantined at PAWS Chicago Medical Center for the next few weeks in compliance with CDC requirements and under the supervision of the Illinois Department of Agriculture and the state veterinarian, said Mary Scheffke, the director of the rescue group.
After the quarantine period, the dogs will be placed by the rescue group in foster homes, where they will receive further care, treatment and training before they are available for adoption, Scheffke said.
“Saving these puppies’ lives was only achieved through acts both small and large of literally over 100,000 people,” said Scheffke, referring to an online petition that garnered more than 120,000 signatures.
“We now must harness the momentum to fix the broken system and create permanent change,” Scheffke added.
To secure full custody and ownership of the dogs, the rescue group has agreed to assume all costs and liabilities associated with the puppies’ past and future care. Donors are providing the funds needed.
The agreement reached with federal authorities was bolstered by support from U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley and Sen. Tammy Duckworth, “who fought tirelessly and with sincere passion for these dogs,” Scheffke said.
The CDC had ordered the French bulldog rescue group to transport the 15 recovering puppies Monday morning to O’Hare, where they were scheduled to be removed from the United States on a 13-hour flight to the Middle East.
The dogs were discovered in deplorable conditions, two to a crate, in a cargo warehouse at O’Hare, after being shipped to the United States from Russia with a layover in Jordan in August.
A total of 20 dogs were found at the O’Hare warehouse, where Chicago police found 16 French bulldog pups, one of them dead, in small cages, covered in feces and urine and without water or food, a police spokeswoman said at the time. Dogs found languishing in the warehouse also included four large-breed dogs, two of which are being cared for by Chicago Animal Care and Control, and two dogs that are unaccounted for, according to the rescue group.
Alliance Ground International, the company that runs the warehouse where the dogs were found, was issued two citations by Chicago police, one for 17 counts of animal neglect and a second for animal neglect that may have contributed to the death of a male canine, a spokeswoman for the rescue group said last week.
The dogs’ paperwork was forged by the shipper to get around limits on the number of dogs any one person can import, rescue group officials have said.
After the French bulldog rescue group arranged for a team of Chicago-area vets to care for the ailing pups, PAWS Chicago director Paula Fasseas said she got busy reaching out to fellow animal welfare advocates, including designer Tinsley Mortimer, who serves on the PAWS board, and Chicago entrepreneur Scott Kluth, as well as Quigley and Duckworth.