Guillermo of Jimmy Kimmel’s show in trouble for chihuahuas ending up at shelter

Guillermo Rodriguez plays second fiddle to Jimmy Kimmel on his late-night talk show. He generally just does whatever Jimmy asks him to and doesn’t cause any waves, as far as I know. Until now, that is. Guillermo messed up big time when a pair of chihuahuas he adopted ended up in a shelter. He’d adopted Chase and Rey as puppies from Mutt Scouts and posted about them to social media. But they were surrendered to an animal shelter recently. Their chips still had Mutt Scouts registered, so the shelter reached out to them. As is standard, Guillermo signed a contract saying he would contact Mutt Scouts if he could no longer care for the dogs, so they called him out on Instagram. He claims it was all a big misunderstanding. But people checked Guillermo’s IG and noticed he’d deleted all the pics of him with Chase and Rey. So if this was all a big oops! why was the evidence of the pups erased?

Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night sidekick, Guillermo Rodriguez, is in the doghouse with a rescue agency that says two pups he adopted ended up at a shelter, but he says the whole ordeal started with a misunderstanding within his family.

Mutt Scouts, a dog rescue group based in SoCal, tells TMZ … Guillermo adopted two chihuahuas — Chase and Rey — back in 2021 when they were just puppies. He was stoked about the addition to his family, posting pics of them on IG soon after getting them.

However, Mutt Scouts says they recently got a call from an animal shelter in the L.A. area … saying the dogs were surrendered to them by an unnamed woman. The shelter called Mutt Scouts because both pups were microchipped and registered to the org prior to Guillermo adopting them.

The org took to social media this week to call him out, and some ‘Kimmel’ fans were pissed and noted Guillermo’s past post with the dogs is no longer on his page.

Guillermo tells TMZ … this all started when he was asked to take care of his grandmother’s large dog because she’s battling dementia. At the same time, he went in for knee surgery … so his stepsister had to watch Chase, Rey and grandma’s big dog.

He says his stepsister panicked the big dog was going to harm the two chihuahuas, and that’s when she decided to take them to the shelter. When Guillermo found out, he says he immediately told her she’d make a big mistake. He knew they should have gone to Mutt Scouts and says he contacted the group on Friday and said he “was sorry from the bottom of his heart.”

[From TMZ]

If I may clarify – animal shelters are vital to communities, and they work with rescues all the time. It usually sounds like shelters are hated, but they have good people working for them and they do everything they can for their animals in most cases. Budgets and other circumstances give them challenges, however, which is why rescues want their animals back. One big worry, of course, is kill facilities, which unfortunately are a necessity for some areas. The second is that shelters do not have the same screening and contract process for their adoptions. A rescue goes to great lengths to place the right pet with the right people. If they are in a shelter, the rescue – who knows the pet’s personality, how they respond to other pets, people and situations – has no control of where that pet gets placed. Put it the wrong situation, the pet could be set up to fail and worst-case scenario, someone or the pet gets hurt. Rescues like to keep track of their adoptees to ensure the success of the pet and the adopter, not to exert control. Please ask questions of the screener when you are adopting a pet. If the screener can’t explain the policy well, that’s not an organization with whom you want to make ties.

As for Guillermo, I don’t know what to make of this. The scenario of the big dog and the chihuahuas not mixing well makes sense. Although Guillermo had supposedly been watching all three without incident so I’m not sure why the worry in the new home. But it is possible with a change of venue, especially if Grandma’s dogs had been rehoused three times in a short amount of time. But the logic of surrendering your stepbrother’s dogs while he’s having knee surgery without consulting him is wild. And when he found out, Guillermo’s response was ‘oh, you should have called Mutt Scouts’ and not ‘you gave away my dogs?!’ So yeah, between that and the deleted puppy pics, I think he was unloading the dogs. Maybe it was too much with this new dog. Knee surgery is a massive recovery, maybe he was overwhelmed with that. I don’t know, but this was done on the sly for a reason and it’s not fair to Chase and Rey. Fortunately, the shelter caught it. But the pups need a foster or a new home. You can visit them on Mutt Scouts’ website. They are a good org, and they stand by their pets no questions asked, which is key. DoVE Project does the same thing. I know some cat adoptions that also have this policy. Always look for a rescue that supports the adoption for longer than when the money changes hands.

Xavier Collin/Image Press Agency/Avalon and Instagram

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20 Responses to “Guillermo of Jimmy Kimmel’s show in trouble for chihuahuas ending up at shelter”

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  1. Frippery says:

    Maybe the mix-up was in where the two small dogs were supposed to be taken? Like, sis was supposed to call Mutt Scouts but she panicked and just dumped them at the shelter for some reason …. ?

    • Sandra says:

      It does just seem like a mix up.

      GR didn’t pull a Pratt with this and there was no reason to “call him out”. It makes these shelters look bad and ultimately hurts their mission. the dogs weren’t left by a dumpster.

      There is a lot of shame in having surrender a dog even if the reason is for everyone’s safety.

      Its a more responsible decision than keeping a dog you can’t (or even won’t) take care of or keep safe.

      • lisa says:

        it really doesnt seem like that at all since he deleted all their photos, he deserves all the dragging and probably more

  2. Fuzzy Crocodile says:

    I love my dog and can’t imagine giving him up, but I do understand situations for people can drastically change…

    But this sounds like complete BS. Why delete photos of the dogs? Why would the panic about the big dog lead to just surrendering the dogs? And was he gone for weeks for his knee surgery?

  3. Lia says:

    Good animal shelters are just as important for society and animal welfare as animal welfare organizations!
    Shame on you Guillermo! How st*pid can someone actually be! If you acquire a dog, then you check first whether he fits in the family, the living situation and to other dogs at home! It’s very bad for a dog when he loses his home.
    I sometimes feel that in America it is normal to acquire dogs as if they are objects, without considering the needs and the well-being of the dogs.

  4. Izzy says:

    There were so many other options though. Board the larger dog for a bit, hire someone to walk the chihuahuas every day, teach your kids some g**d*** responsibility and have them participate in taking care of them. Call the rescue you got them from, like you were supposed to. “They ended up at a shelter so I just deleted all my photos of them” screams dumping. You delete photos from your social media when you break up with someone. You don’t break up with pets, they are a major responsibility and not something to be discarded like trash.

    This guy sucks. So does his family. And I want proof it really was his sister and not his wife who dropped them at the shelter.

    • lisa says:

      ITA with all of this

      the people that dont return them to the original rescue to keep it a secret dont give a &&&& about their safety, they were just an accessory for them

  5. TheOriginalMia says:

    If not for the deleted pictures, I’d believe there was a mix up. But he deleted their pictures and didn’t immediately call the rescue until he was called out. I hope the pups find a loving home together.

  6. capicocacola says:

    Beth ostrosky and howard stern are never going to let this go.

    Guillermo should have known this action would get called out. Both he and Jimmy will be targets of derision.

  7. Leigh says:

    Please don’t refer to open admission shelters as “kill” facilities. It demonizes the incredibly devoted people who work there and the very necessary role these shelters play—accepting ALL animals—one that is increasingly disappearing as these shelters are attacked by the public for “killing,” leading to the shelters increasingly turning animals away, meaning the animals have NOWHERE to go (so-called “no-kill” shelters get to keep that shiny label because they pick and choose which animals they will help, often turning away the sick, the elderly, the “common” or any other animals who may not be easily adoptable, or adoptable at all).

    The real “killers” are those who irresponsibly fail to spay and neuter, leading to millions of unwanted animals born every year, and those who continue to buy from pet stores and breeders (there is no “responsible” breeder when there is already an overpopulation crisis) while millions of animals wait, and yes are euthanized, in shelters for lack of good homes. So please adopt don’t shop, and as Bob Barker says, always spay and neuter your pets!

    • BillyPilgrim says:

      @Leigh
      💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯

    • HoofRat says:

      This!!!!!

    • @Leigh- well said.

      Also, I’m personally not a fan of vilifying people who need to give up their pets. Life is hard and sometimes sh*t happens. Maybe I’m wrong and the guy deserves to be publicly shredded, but let’s try to keep it in perspective. The dogs were surrendered not mutilated. Maybe it wasn’t ideal, and maybe people deserve our compassion too

      Lifelong dog owner, myself

  8. WiththeAmericann says:

    This story has me seething. He has the money to hire dog sitters, to board the big dog, to hire trainers, a lot of options. No way this was related to his knee surgery and it was obviously done at his bidding.

    He is a POS.

  9. AnneL says:

    Well, that was a rotten thing to do.

    I understand that sometimes people need to re-home dogs. We found a long-haired chihuahua stray once and she bnnded to us immediately, so we kept her for several months. But I already had two dogs, and it was not working out with the three of them. The new dog wanted my attention and focus all the time and the others were jealous. They still had not accepted her and none of them were getting the amount of attention they wanted and deserved, because there was only so much of me to go around. My husband and kids spent time with the dogs, too, but I was the one they really wanted all the time.

    But I didn’t just dump her at a shelter. I took her to my vet and asked for advice. As it turns out, one of the employees there had been wanting to adopt this breed. I felt bad letting her go, but I knew she would adjust to her new owner (who was lovely) and be happy as an “only dog” who got all the attention.

  10. Mabs A'Mabbin says:

    We’re kinda fostering a Chihuahua right now lol. My neighbor fosters dogs and had this little four month old Chi called Sweet Pea. Ugh. Now the little nugget is right here with me being the perfect little dog. My family wants to keep her. I’m trying really hard NOT to fall in love. But she’s making it hard lol. My walls are still up, I just know the second I give in, she’s going to turn into the Tasmanian Devil lol.

  11. The Recluse says:

    We have three dogs currently: two big shepherd mixes from a rescue and a bratty Corgi. I would hate to have to give any of them up, but I would make sure they went to a rescue, the one I got the big boys from. They’re my family.
    By the way, Keith Olberman frequently posts links on Twitter to dogs needing rescues from Kill shelters. Look him up!

  12. Ange says:

    Knee surgery is such a weak excuse. I had knee surgery and managed to look after my two cats, in a two storey house too! If I hadn’t been able to I was prepared with pet sitter information and had lined up friends to assist as well. And that was with a minuscule fraction of the resources this man no doubt has at his disposal. If you want to do it you’ll find a way, he clearly just didn’t want to.

  13. EastVillager says:

    I’m involved in pet rescue in LA, and every single shelter and rescue group is overwhelmed by people dumping older pets at the moment. Things have been BAD since 2021 when so many people adopted pets they couldn’t care for long-term during lockdown. Bad enough that the rescue community is experiencing a heartbreaking number of suicides and mental health crises partially because rescuers just can’t keep up (especially right now – puppy/kitten season). LA has primarily no-kill shelters but the devil is in the details: if your surrendered pet ends up in Riverside or Downey, they will be euthanized if not adopted quickly. It’s just callous, irresponsible and hateful to give away pets because of a temporary inconvenience.