I always thought Chihuahuas were pretty harmless, but apparently they can be quite vicious in large numbers. The residents of Maryvale, a small town in Arizona, can certainly vouch for the fact. The town is filled with stray pooches that are terrorizing children and defecating all over the place.

Local animal control officials say they’re finding it quite difficult to control the Chihuahua population. They’ve received over 6,000 calls from frustrated residents – three times higher than any other town in the state. According to Melissa Gable from Maricopa County Animal Control (MCAC), these dogs aren’t spayed or neutered so they’re always looking out for a mate and having babies. This makes the problem worse.

“There’s a lot of dogs in the street,” said Stephanie Guzman, a resident. “People will start going crazy because they bark all night.”

The tiny dogs supposedly move in large packs, and are hostile towards little children. Seven-year-old Anibal Morales said: “I was like riding my bike around the block and there was like three dogs that were all like barking at me and chasing me, they almost got me.”

“Yeah, a lot of them they are out here chasing kids or going yard to yard… anywhere in groups of 8 to 12 just running around,” said resident Ray Rios.

Photo: Fox News Latino

Jose Lopez, another resident, said he was bitten by stray dogs a couple of times. “A lot of people go back to Mexico and they just leave their dogs behind,” he said. “They’ll leave like for a month and just sort of leave their dogs to fend for themselves over here.” John Reynolds, MCAC supervisor agreed that abandoning dogs is the number one cause for the large population of strays, especially since the foreclosure crisis hit the area.

Officials are now issuing instructions to residents on how they can help control the situation. “If at all possible, if you see a stray, if you can safely contain him in your yard and then call us, that makes a big difference,” said Ms. Gable. “Because what’s happening is people are calling saying, ‘hey, I see a stray,’ but by the time we get there, it’s long gone.”

Patrolling the area is out of the question for officials, since they are too busy attending calls. So they’re planning to run public service announcements on Spanish-language radio and TV stations urging Maryvale residents to spay and neuter their pets.

via ABC15