A group of rejected pooches is getting a ticket out of town Wednesday.
Virgin America is literally rolling out the red carpet for 15 Chihuahuas who cannot find a home here in the Bay Area. They are being flown to New York where dog lovers promise to be at the ready to adopt them.
This is not the first out of state rescue mission, which is a sad fact for a region that prides itself on being dog-friendly.
Things are finally turning around for the once unlucky group. Virgin is letting the dogs fly in open seats inside the plane alongside Virgin volunteers. Who knows? They might even get a bag of nuts.
Bay Area animal control officers call the overpopulation problem "Paris Hilton Syndrome." They say the popularity of "pocket" dogs, like Chihuahuas, has grown because people see celebs like Hilton carrying them around in adorable little pink handbags.
In response, a lot of breeders have switched to smaller dogs. But it looks like the breeders have gotten ahead of the popularity wave, because Chihuahuas are now flooding Bay Area shelters.
In December, the San Francisco rescue group Grateful Dogs had 66 foster animals and 31 of them were Chihuahuas.
