Kern County faces a very serious pet over-population problem, and a group of volunteers in Taft is determined to be part of the solution. "Unity Animal Rescue" has saved over 500 dogs and puppies since last Fall.

They take in stray or unwanted dogs, care for them -- and take upon themselves to get the animals to "no kill" shelters where adoptive homes will be found.

"I feel like, if we can make a difference --we should," founder Linda Hodges told Eyewitness News. It was a Wednesday morning, and she was loading up 19 dogs to take to a humane society shelter in Ventura County.

Hodges has an army of volunteers to care for the dogs until they're ready for the trip to a shelter. They feed the dogs, get them shots, and even have them groomed before the ride to a shelter.

And that's about 80 dogs every month. How do they get the animals? "A lot of dogs we find dumped in fields," says Hodges. "We had to give one guy $20 to keep him from dumping a litter of pups in the aqueduct."

Hodges' group also advertises in the Taft newspaper that they'll find homes for un-wanted dogs. On the Wednesday morning, most of the dogs were litters of puppies that had been given to the group by owners who couldn't take care of them.

One fluffy white dog stood alone in a crate. "He was severely matted under a car," says Hodges. "And we ran an ad in the paper, and no one ever claimed him."

The volunteers take care of the dogs, saying it's just the right thing to do. "The dogs need help," said Edie Ogborn -- her eyes tearing up. "I'm emotional when it comes to animals because I just love them. And I don't think they deserve what they get."

The group raises money by running a small thrift store in Taft. They have non-profit status -- and take donations. They also put in a lot of their own money, and hundreds of hours of their own time.

The dogs go to SPCA and Humane Society shelters. "They want the dogs from us, because they don't have that many puppies -- which is unusual," says volunteer Sharon Gunter.

Eyewitness News checked on that. By phone from Ojai, the Ventura Humane Society volunteer coordinator said they take 30 to 60 dogs from Unity every month.

The shelter says they find homes for the puppies "very quickly," and they find homes for the older dogs in a month or two.

Some weeks the Unity animals are taken to the Woods Humane Society shelter in San Luis Obispo. That shelter says they've gotten about 200 dogs from Unity since last year.

The San Luis shelter says they have found homes for the puppies quickly, and older dogs take no longer than a month on average.

They also bring up an interesting point -- what exactly is a "no kill" shelter? San Luis Obispo shelter director Leigh Ann Harms says that means the only dogs they put down have serious behavior or health problems. All other dogs are found adoptive homes.

Unity has also taken "well over 100" dogs to the Bakersfield SPCA in the last year. Spokesman Chuck Nordstrom says they've found homes for all these animals.

Does this group help in the effort to solve the local pet over-population problem? "They're definitely doing good," says Nordstrom.

Unity Rescue's web-site says in their mission statement that they rescue animals because Taft does not have a no-kill shelter.

The City of Taft does operate an animal shelter through its Police Department. Eyewitness News asked Director Valerie Madsen about adoptions, and the number of animals that have to be put down.

Madsen says for 2007, their shelter adopted out 52 dogs -- that includes 33 transferred to the Bakersfield SPCA. They had to put down 215 -- some were from Maricopa and some from Taft.

"We're animal control, we're not an SPCA or humane society -- and unfortunately, that's part of it," says Madsen.

The Taft shelter has room for 42 dogs. Madsen says they're held at least five business days, and then evaluated for adoptability. "We hold them here, if they're an exceptionally good animal -- we hold them here for months."

But groups like Unity have a different role, their focus is rescue. "I commend her for doing that," says Madsen. "She's trying to help -- and every little bit helps."

Eyewitness News also checked with Kern County Animal Control to get their perspective. Director Denise Haynes says Hodges' group is community-based -- and that's especially helpful.

"She helps by removing animals from our shelter, but she is also helpful in that some animals don't ever get here because she is there in that community. People know she exists and they'll trust her and take their animals there. So, she is really an asset to the animal pet population problem in Kern County."

Kern County Animal Control says they checked on Unity's non-profit status, and just last week gave the group a whole litter of puppies with the mother dog.

Animal control officers and Unity both agree -- there's one real solution to the pet over-population problem. "Spay and neuter your animal -- get it licensed," says Taft's Valerie Madsen.

"Please, spay and neuter your pet -- it's so vital," says Hodges. She and the volunteers loaded up several crates of dogs and puppies, and she pulled out of Taft headed over to Ojai.

"We just want to be a help to our community -- and not euthanize the dogs," says Hodges. "We want to save dogs." The rescue group has a web-site. You can find out more at www.unitythrift.org.