Rescued Dogs Get Care In N.J. On T-giving Weekend

MADISON, N.J. (CBS 2) -- They are sweet and friendly, and now they just need a little tender loving care.

CBS 2's Magee Hickey reports on nearly three-dozen dogs who have a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving weekend.

Hickey met "Mayflower," one of the Thanksgiving pilgrims at Saint Hubert's Animal Welfare Center, renamed to coincide with the holiday. The year-old Labrador mix was rescued along with 33 other pooches from a neglectful home in West Virginia.

"They weren't being treated properly, fed properly or housed properly so they were seized by the sheriff's department there. In that area of West Virginia, there weren't enough adopters or shelters to take them all so they reached out for our help and we were happy to bring them to New Jersey," said Nora Parker, vice president of St. Hubert's.

The other lab and hound-type dogs rescued this week were also named for passengers on the Mayflower. There's "Remember Alerton," "Isaac Alerton," "Moses Fletcher," and "Francis Cook." Most of them were still being checked out for a skin condition called demedex.

If you look closely at Mayflower, you see the demedex, but by the time he's available for adoption, the condition should be all cleared up, likely in just a couple of weeks.

"The skin condition is not contagious to humans," said shelter manager Becky Burton. "The mites cause the hair follicles to fall out so you see a little balding."

Some of the bowsers are timid and fearful because of what they've been through, but shelter workers said once they are placed in a loving home, they will blossom just like the New World pilgrims they're named after.

All dogs will be vaccinated, micro-chipped, spayed or neutered. St. Hubert's was also looking for some foster homes to take the dogs temporarily.