Safety First! Man Opens Up His Home to 300 Dogs, Sheltering Them from Hurricane Delta

Luis Andres Henao/AP Ricardo Pimentel

The more the merrier!

As Hurricane Delta approached Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula in early October, Ricardo Pimentel opened up his home, which doubles as an animal rescue, to a massive amount of animals in need of shelter from the storm — including cats, bunnies, sheep, and about 300 dogs.

"It doesn’t matter if the house is dirty, it can be cleaned," Pimentel, who founded Tierra de Animales in 2011, told the Associated Press. "The things they broke can be fixed or bought again, but what’s beautiful is to see them happy, healthy, and safe, without wounds and with the possibility of being adopted."

As Pimentel prepared for the hurricane to strike, he began asking for donations, which would allow him to make sure he had enough food to feed the hundreds of dogs in his care.

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"As you know, we have hundreds of animals here and are rushing into the city now, getting prepared as much as possible. Most importantly, we have to buy as much dog food as we possibly can," the animal shelter wrote in a Facebook post dated Oct. 6, just hours ahead of the storm’s arrival.

"If I lived alone or nothing else with about 10 or 20 dogs, I would not worry much, but here are hundreds of animals and we can not afford to not have enough food stored," Pimentel added in a separate post.

Daniela Rojas via AP Ricardo Pimentel

Daniela Rojas via AP Dogs rescued from Hurricane Delta

Of course, preparing for the hurricane also meant that he had to move the dogs inside.

After successfully relocating all of the canines, Pimentel shared a number of photographs online, showing his home packed with wall-to-wall canines. The posts ended up going viral, which Pimentel has stressed was never his intention, resulting in thousands of likes and donations.

"Your support at this time has been invaluable, we deeply appreciate all your messages, calls, and shows of affection," read a recent post. "Thank you on behalf of all the animals in the sanctuary!"

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Pimentel also hopes that his viral posts will bring about an increase in adoptions.

"We would like to think that thanks to all this attention, somebody would like to be part of the story and say: 'I adopted a dog saved from that famous Hurricane Delta,'" he told the AP.