A couple claims they were not able to adopt a pregnant dog from Animal Services unless her puppies were aborted. The couple went to the shelter on Tuesday to rescue one of the 47 chihuahuas that were surrendered by their owners on Monday.

"I got on the Internet and saw that they had some pregnant ones. I thought perfect because my chihuahua is getting older. I'll come down and adopt one and she'll have her puppies and I'll have a family of chihuahuas," said Betty Bustamante.

Bustamante and her boyfriend were not able to adopt the chihuahua they wanted because the dog is pregnant.

"I was told that the female dogs, they're going to abort the pups before anyone will adopt them," said Bustamante.

"As a rescue group, we strongly feel that all animals need to be spayed or neutered prior to release," said Rebecca Rojas with New Hope Alliance, the third party group that adopts pets from Animal Services.

Rojas said the state law requires shelters and rescue groups to spay and neuter pets before releasing them. She said the couple was given an option to foster the pregnant dog until the puppies are born then go back to spay and neuter them. Bustamante said she was not given that option.

But Rojas emphasizes that not spaying or neutering pets is the source of El Paso's overpopulation problem.

"Statistics have proven that one unspayed female and her offspring can reproduce 67,000 animals in six years," said Rojas.

In Texas, animals are considered property. And because the chihuahua owners surrendered them to Animal Services, the department could have euthanized them immediately. But because the dogs are very adoptable they're getting a second chance, but unfortunately another 180 pets were euthanized Tuesday because of the pet overpopulation.