GREAT FALLS — Nearly 50 dogs from China were in Great Falls on Wednesday as they waited to go to a rescue facility in Canada. The dogs are currently being housed at Happy Tails Lodge.
They were flown from China to Los Angeles, California, and then driven to the Canadian border to cross into Canada.
But when they got to the border no vet was available to check them out, so the organization transporting the dogs asked Happy Tails to take the dogs in temporarily.
The dogs were only supposed to be there for the weekend, but because of bad weather the transport organization had to delay taking them into Canada.
"Watching them learn to play has just been fun. Of course, they'd been fed light, i think, on the journey over here so they were ravenous when they got here. But they've settled in now and we're getting awfully attached. It's going to be hard to ship them out,” said Katy Duncan, the owner of Happy Tails.
As of Wednesday afternoon, the dogs were expected to be taken to Canada on Thursday.
The dogs are not available for adoption here; they are contractually obligated to be delivered to the agency in Canada. Duncan did not know the name of the Canadian facility.
NOTE: This article initially stated that the dogs were rescued from a "meat farm" in China. That claim came from Duncan, who told KRTV that the dogs were a "potential meat source" in China.
