A crowd of potential beagle adoptees waited outside the Nashville Humane Association on Friday morning — some waiting nearly three hours for the shelter to open.
Kenneth Tallier of NHA let WPLN News skip the line to see the dogs just before the doors opened.
“All of them are female. All of them are eight months old. And all of them are cute,” Tallier says.
Marianna Bacallao WPLN NewsCream Cheese (left) and Poppyseed (right) are waiting to be adopted on Friday, Aug. 12.
Only nine of the beagles are put up for adoption each day. That’s bad news for the dozens of people outside, but good news for the other dogs in the shelter.
“All the barking that you’re hearing is from our other dogs,” Tallier says. “Beagles are known to be vocal. They’re known to howl. But guess what? I haven’t heard them howl yet.”
If the beagles are a little quiet, there’s a reason for that. They were part of what the Humane Society of the United States is calling its biggest animal rescue. 4,000 beagles were saved from a breeding facility in Virginia that would’ve sold the dogs for lab testing.
With that many new dogs under their roof, the staff at NHA had to come up with names — and fast. Friday’s litter was named after bagel flavors.
There’s Blueberry, Poppyseed, Onion, Cream Cheese and Pumpernickel. Asiago, in particular, loved the microphone.
Conducted a very important interview at @nashvillehumane this morning. pic.twitter.com/vZcYI9hPez
— Marianna Bacallao (@MariannaBac) August 12, 2022
Whole Wheat was the first beagle adopted, but she may not be a bagel beagle for long. She went home with Ansley Potter, who is considering renaming her “Linda.”
Nashville Humane Association Ansley Potter (left), Linda, née Whole Wheat (middle), and Potter’s boyfriend (right)
Potter says she planned on adopting as soon as she heard that the beagles would be coming to Nashville.
“We came here yesterday and waited and didn’t get one,” she says. “And then, they told us that we were second on the wait list for the next day, as long as we showed up at 10 a.m. on the dot or earlier.”
Nashville Humane Association A tally of the dogs and cats adopted from Nashville Humane Association on Aug. 11.
The attention from the dogs has also led to a rise in adoptions overall. On the leaderboard from the day before, there were 11 other dogs adopted alongside the beagles.
“It was almost like Christmas Day here at the shelter,” Tallier says. “We had dozens and dozens and dozens of adoptions.”
The beagles haven’t been here a full week, but Tallier says they’re perking up. They’ve gotten a lot of attention from volunteers and staff.
“I think that they know that they’re finally somewhere safe,” Tallier says. “The next step is unconditional love.”
18 of the 40 beagles have left the shelter, but due to a wave of illnesses among NHA staff, the adoption day planned for Tuesday has been cancelled and adoptions have been put on hold.
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