Nine Maltese dogs, between the ages of 4 and 8, are now in the care of PAWS Chicago, a no-kill shelter.   They are victims of what’s believed to be a “backyard breeder” in the city.

The 5 girls and 4 boys were surrendered to Chicago Animal Care and Control on Monday night before being taken in by PAWS Chicago.

All nine dogs were in bad shape, filthy with feces and matted hair.  Most have skin conditions.  Some dogs also suffer from serious medical conditions, including untreated cataracts, dislocated knees, heart murmurs and bad teeth.

“It`s so sad,” said PAWS Chicago founder Paula Fasseas, as she held one of the dogs. “ It`s tragic that people can treat animals this way. Look how sweet they are.”

The former owner spoke very little English, according to PAWS Chicago volunteers.  She dropped the dogs off and then left.

“We`ve seen worse,  at least they brought them in,” said Fasseas.  “They could have just left them in their basement to die.  Or they could just put them in the garbage can.  We constantly get calls from police, sanitation people that will bring us dogs found in garbage cans.  She did the right thing by bringing them to animal care and control.”

Now the work begins to get the dogs back to health and into a happy home.  Fasseas believes they should be rehabilitated in time for adoption around the holidays.  PAWS believes it could cost upwards of $30,000 to treat all nine dogs.

“They could live another 6 or 7 years at least– maybe 8 years.  These dogs live a long time and with love I think  they live longer than ever.  I mean with a good home?  Look at this one, how sweet they are.  They know they`re loved. They`ll hang in there and they will live a long, long life.”

You can track the progress of the Maltese Nine on PAWS Chicago Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/pawschicago)  as well as a special page set up for the group (http://paws.convio.net/maltese)