Chihuahuapalooza & The Paris Hilton Syndrome

An attempt by California’s animal shelters to encourage the adoption of unwanted (and increasingly unfashionable) lap dogs.

Reporting from San Francisco for The Los Angeles Times, Maria L. La Gangarevealed:

If every dog has its day, the Chihuahua’s, it seems, may be on the wane.

Representatives from half a dozen Bay Area animal shelters and rescue groups asked the public’s help Wednesday in remedying a serious statewide glut of the petite pooches.

“All the shelters in California are seeing an upswing in Chihuahua impounds,” Deb Campbell, a spokeswoman for the San Francisco animal care and control department, said in an interview. “It’s been a slow and steady climb. . . . We call it the Paris Hilton syndrome.” …

San Francisco dubbed the outreach “Chihuahuapalooza”: 50 yipping, shivering canines jammed into a small lobby with TV cameras rolling.

According to La Ganga, the extent of “California’s Chihuahua oversupply” is such that animal services are arranging to have the pocket-sized pooches flown to other states. Recently, 25 dogs were relocated from Los Angeles to Nashua, New Hampshire, where they were all adopted within a day.