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Florida shelter, Alaqua Animal Refuge, takes in 73 Great Danes

Posted at 11:07 AM, Oct 13, 2016
and last updated 2016-10-14 19:53:25-04

(WJHG, NBC NEWSCHANNEL) A Florida animal shelter is dealing with a unique problem.

Alaqua Animal Refuge founder Laurie Hood says in the history of her non-profit they've had only one Great Dane up for adoption. Now, they can multiply that number by 73.

Last Wednesday, Alaqua Animal Refuge employees were contacted by family members of a Walton County dog breeder saying he was not in good health.

"He abandoned all these dogs and was at a point where there was no one to care for them," said Hood.

After receiving word from the breeder's family, several volunteers stepped in to get the dogs out of their abandoned home. Each day they removed 20 dogs from the breeder's property and brought them to the refuge.

"We knew we had to do it," said Hood. "It went from excitement, to panic, to how are we going to pull it off?"

Employees say for each one of the 73 dogs, they have a wait-list of four to five people.

And the shelter has posted this message to its Facebook page:

We are no longer accepting applications for the Great Danes that came in this week, thanks to thousands of inquiries... and from as far away as INDIA!
For those of you who have submitted, please allow us the time to process the applications and allow us to contact you. We will let everyone know the outcome of each application. Thank you!

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