Well, I called my local shelter about this, hoping they might do an outreach. At the moment, they are swamped with cats, and have 136 dogs available, too (one is an 8 year old Yorkie).
In my area, and many shelters around here, most dogs available are larger breeds/mixes. Some of the Northern shelters do take some of these dogs to take some of the pressure off our shelters. The small dogs, however, are highly adoptable and don't stay long at the shelter. We recently had a lady turn in over 100 small breeds/designer mixes (pups and dogs) and there was a line around the block the first day they were made available for adoption.
Okay, back to the phone call. The Administrator I was talking to did show an interest. She was aware of the Chi problem out West but didn't realize the scale of it. I think I got her to consider taking a second look at it, though, and there's a reason for it.
Our shelter (Humane Society of South Mississippi) is competing for the ASPCA's $100,000 Challenge, so there is a motivation for them to seek out adoptable animals. It may not be the most altruistic motivation, but, whatever it takes to save an animal, right?
Here's a link about the challenge...
Save More Lives | ASPCA $100k Challenge
If you look at the link, you'll see the shelters involved in the challenge. If one is your local shelter, you may be able to get them to have an interest in the Chis (not only the ones in the news story) due to the challenge. It couldn't hurt to put a bug in their ear and, who knows, it just may help.