35 German Shepherds have arrived safely in San Diego County after being rescued in Ukraine.
SHELTER VALLEY, CA – Digging down into the ground to install stakes and construct 35 dog kennels near Shelter Valley, Calif., 30 miles east of Julian.
Chris Jimenez, the owner and founder of K9 Connect, and his buddies are working swiftly to create kennels for the pups anxious to come out of their dog carriers.
“Right now, we’re creating 8′ x 8′ x 8 feet high so they can extend their legs and whatever,” Jimenez explained.
Jimenez has been in Ukraine since late February, attempting to get these police and military trained K-9s out of the war-torn country, as CBS 8 reported last month.
“We tried rationing out how long we could survive there, and it was around two weeks of food that it would take to feed all of these dogs, so we decided we had to depart,” Jimenez explained.
Jimenez earned 53,000 Euros from his social media followers to pay for a chartered jet to transport all of the dogs to California.
“The most challenging component was not the warzone. The logistics of going with 35 German Shepherds,” Jimenez explained.
The dogs arrived at LAX Friday night, ready to go but in need of some TLC.
“”Right now, the dogs require substantial rehabilitation; they’ve been put in a car for hours and then shoved on a plane, and they were in poor condition when I arrived,” Jimenez explained.
These German Shepherds, aged 6 months to 7 years, are trained for explosive and drugs detection, as well as missing person searches.
Now they must find them each a home; Jimenez believes it must be a good fit, and they will most likely go to police departments or government agencies.
“It’s a lengthy procedure since these canines are so exceptional that they can’t be readily adopted out,” Jimenez explained.