SOUTH SAN FERNANDO DISTRICT -- The operator of a dog rescue facility met a court order on Wednesday to move all the animals out of her Burbank location.
Kimi Peck, owner of Chihuahua Rescue, has taken her nearly 200 dogs to an undisclosed location where she said she will continue her efforts to care for the dogs.
"I have more than enough room to have a beautiful place for these dogs to retire in," Peck said. "That is our only goal. We are focused on that."
Burbank Animal Control Officer Brenda Castaneda confirmed that all the dogs were out of the facility on Wednesday morning.
Still, Peck's detractors -- who have banded together under the name Save the Chihuahuas -- fear she will continue hoarding animals at her new location and keep them in unsanitary conditions as they claim was done at the Burbank site.
The group knows where Peck has gone and has no plans to visit her new location but will monitor what happens with the animals, Save the Chihuahuas member Joan Rudd said.
"Our main concern is the dogs and that they are taken care of," Rudd said. "We don't believe they were in Burbank and suspect they aren't where they are now."
Save the Chihuahuas members were present to see the dogs being loaded into moving trucks to be taken away from the Burbank facility, Rudd said.
The dogs were moved in the trucks with "crates fastened and tied to the walls," said Jeff Dodson, one of the people helping with them move. "All the cages were secured."
In June, Peck pleaded no contest in Burbank Superior Court to a municipal code violation of insufficient record keeping for three of the more than 200 animals at her shelter and agreed to move the 400 block of Moss Street facility out of the city.
Other misdemeanor charges of not providing clean water and having unclean conditions for the animals were dropped.
As the deadline neared, Peck's critics hired a private investigator to sit outside the Moss Street facility with cameras so they could track where the dogs were being taken, Rudd said.
Tempers have flared between the two sides.
Early Tuesday morning, Chihuahua Rescue employee Samuel Mendlestein was arrested on suspicion of robbery for taking a video camera from a 42-year-old West Hills woman employed by the private investigation firm, Burbank Police spokesman Sgt. Jay Jette said.
