The great Chihuahua airlift

In response to a crisis sparked by Paris Hilton, charities are resorting to an airborne rescue of California's legions of unwanted Chihuahuas.

With California facing a glut of abandoned Chihuahuas, advocates have begun airlifting the diminutive, goggle-eyed orphans to adoptive owners on the East Coast. This Wednesday 15 Chihuahuas were flown from San Francisco to New York, courtesy of Virgin America. Some animal control officers call the abandonment epidemic "Paris Hilton syndrome," noting that the breed's popularity skyrocketed when trendy Californians began emulating the hotel heiress' pet choice, then plummeted as new owners realized that dogs are not purses. Should Easterners help bail California out of its Chihuahua crisis? (Watch an AP report about the Chihuahua rescue)

Celebrities got Chihuahuas into this mess. They can get them out: Yes, Paris Hilton and movies such as "Legally Blonde" helped turned Chihuahuas into a pop culture icon, says Ann Brenoff in Wallet Pop, and that's why the state's shelters are now overrun with the dogs, which are cute but often hard to handle. But what celebrities break celebrities can fix—actress Katherine Heigl coughed up $25,000 to get the airlift started by sending two groups of Chihuahuas to New Hampshire, where volunteers quickly adopted them all last month.

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