CHULA VISTA, Calif. (KGTV) — There’s nothing like a good walk in great weather.
Just ask Carra Rhamy and John Jackson, who have Aime and Kasper at their side.
“I get exercise, and I get a dog fix,” Rhamy, a Chula Vista Animal Services volunteer, said.
While jogging with the dogs, Jackson, a 65-year-old volunteer, said he lost 40 pounds.
“They bring me so much joy and happiness and health too,” Jackson said.
These German Shepherds are among the many dogs at the Chula Vista Animal Services shelter.
“Right now, we average 120 to 140 dogs on site and up to 20 or more in foster at the moment,” Ashely Milo, Deputy Director of Chula Vista Animal Services, said. “So realistically, 80 is a good number for us to have, so sitting a double capacity is very difficult.”
Milo told ABC 10News they had to build overflow kennels for the dogs in their care.
“...We now have 12 additional runs that have taken up our exercise yards so that we can make sure we have housing for the ones coming in every day,” Milo said.
Amid obviously not ideal overcapacity issues, volunteers in the shelter’s dog walking program, like Jackson and Rhamy, help all the dogs here.
“So we give them the opportunity to be dogs, to get out, to sniff, to do what dogs need to do,” Rhamy said.
Some of them have been there for over 500 days.
“Give them some sense of normalcy, smell the real world, get away from the kennel, and hopefully, in the right environment, help find an adopter,” Milo said.
Getting these dogs out for a walk can give the shelter a different kind of foot traffic.
“From there, it grew into visiting parks and beaches - and everywhere else a walker is comfortable taking them too - with vest and handkerchiefs and everything saying ‘I’m available for adoption or I’m available for foster,’” Milo said. “So that we can hopefully find someone and show interest, fall in love, and get them out of here on a more permanent basis.”
