The county’s animal care agency was flooded with applications Tuesday upon opening the adoption process to find homes for 50 of more than 140 dogs recently seized from a home in a gated community in the city of Orange.
For the first time, OC Animal Care created a link on its website, ocpetinfo.com, that allowed for electronically filed applications, said spokeswoman Jessica J. Novillo.
The adoption process was kicked off by the Orange County Board of Supervisors Tuesday morning as they posed for photos with the dogs up for adoption.
By the afternoon, the agency stopped taking applications after receiving about 200, Novillo said.
“We’re asking everybody to check back on the site for updates,” she said.
Agency officials came up with the electronic application process because they were deluged with requests for adoptions when news broke of the seizure of the dogs from the home of attorney Edward Reitkopp and his wife, Josephine Giamettareitkopp, late last month.
“After the story initially came out, we had a huge following asking when they would be available for adoption and how can they get on a waiting list,” Novillo said.
The electronic application process was viewed as a way to “make it fair and easy for everyone” to apply, she said, noting more than 90 other dogs taken from the home are still being treated and prepped for adoption.
Novillo noted the agency still has “hundreds of animals and we’re way over capacity,” and encouraged people to attend OC Animal Care’s annual pet fair on Saturday in its new facility at 1630 Victory Road in Tustin.
Orange police issued misdemeanor citations las month to Reitkopp, 66, and his 65-year-old wife, but they have not been criminally charged. Their home is still red-tagged, however, police said.
Orange Police Department Lt. Phil McMullin said Animal Care officials in hazardous materials suits removed the dogs from the home in the 3800 block of East Woodbine Avenue on May 30.
“I don’t know how people lived in that home, the smell was so disgusting,” McMullin said then, adding that the residence “was pretty empty in terms of furniture” and the dogs were given free rein throughout.
An anonymous tip to police led investigators to the home, McMullin said.
The dogs were all small breeds, mostly Shih Tzus and Maltese poodles, McMullin said. It appeared some of the dogs were breeding as “there were a couple of fresh litters upstairs,” he said.
“Some had matted hair, some looked skinnier than others and some looked shaken and scared,” McMullin said.