In many ways, pets are the first to suffer the ill effects of an ailing economy. Local animal rescue groups see it firsthand.

“We do get a lot of calls on home foreclosures, people being forced to move,” said Katie Jorgenson, a volunteer with Southwest Animal Rescue and Adoption Society. In many cases those families are going somewhere pets can’t come along.

“We’re seeing a lot of surrenders due to foreclosed homes,” she said. “Some pets we’re even finding left behind in foreclosed homes.”

Jorgenson, who coordinates the fostering and adoption of cats for Southwest, has seen the rescue group take on 100 more cats compared to last year. The group has grown a bit, so they’ve been able to handle the animals but there’s also a bigger need, she added.

“People are desperate. They call and they say that I’m the eighth rescue they’ve called and all the other ones were full,” she said. “You’ll find that most of them are.”

Feeling the pressure

Southwest Animal Rescue and Adoption Society along with Carver Scott Humane Society are the go-to rescue groups for the southwest metro. The groups are nonprofits that coordinate volunteers, donations and foster care of the animals. Aside from a few cages at PetSmart, the animals are housed at foster homes until adopted. Southwest holds its adoption days once a month at the Eden Prairie PetSmart; Carver-Scott holds its adoption days at both the Chaska and Eden Prairie Petcos.

Volunteers from Southwest and CSHS said there is a major need for foster families and financial donations.

“It’s a perfect storm. The need is up but the donations are down,” said Jorgenson.

The closing of a Minnesota Valley Humane Society is expected to bring added pressure to local rescue groups like Southwest and CSHS. The MVHS, a shelter in Burnsville, will close by Dec. 31.

“I expect calls to be more now that Burnsville [shelter] is closing and the economy isn’t getting any better,” said Jan Rawn, a volunteer on the dog intake team at CSHS.

Rawn said they have seen more animal surrenders due to home foreclosures.

“That’s definitely up and our adoptions are down,” she added.

Rawn noted there are larger number of small dogs coming in, “which is unusual.”

Rawn suspects that people are buying the dogs at pet stores without realizing the level of care they need. The true commitment to taking good care pets and the cost of pet care could be seen as luxuries by some in the tough economy. The same could be said for spaying and neutering their animals.

Vet care is extremely expensive and in today’s economy, people are going to feed their children and make their mortgage rather than updating vaccinations on animals, noted Jorgenson.

“It seems that people just don’t have the money,” she added.

When it comes to the exploding population of stray cats, Rawn noted the problem is even worse. Carver-Scott is full, she added.

Some foster homes with dogs can squeak in one more dog, “But for cats, the foster homes are double, triple and quadrupled up,” said Rawn. “The calls still keep coming in.”

The same story goes with animal control: “They have no place to take them, everybody is full,” said Rawn.

Giving back

Animals feel the brunt of a bad economy “and they’re the first to give all the love they can,” said Rawn.

Melissa Sandoval, who handles dog intake and adoptions for Southwest, joined up with the group last year. When she came on board there were just three dogs in foster care. Now, they have between 15 and 20 dogs at any given time up for adoption. But rescue groups are limited in how much they can grow.

“We want to stay small because … we’re desperately short on foster homes,” she added.

People surrender an animal for a wide variety of reasons, said Sandoval.

“We’ve taken in a number of dogs actually due to deaths of a family member,” she said. “That’s one thing people don’t take into consideration is who’s going to care for their animal if the animal outlives them.”

Others are surrendering due to economics. Even small dogs require more veterinary care.

“Those are unplanned for expenses,” she said.

A lot of the dogs they end up saving come through animal control.

“A lot of dogs are left unclaimed for the very reason that people can’t afford them,” Sandoval noted.

At Southwest, outside of providing food and shelter, the organization takes care of veterinary care. Sandoval noted that recently they took four dogs that had never received any shots (the former owner didn’t think it was necessary). They rescued a litter of puppies that was about to be put down by animal control and Sandoval was amazed that all the puppies survived (almost all have been adopted).

“We have the good fortune to have some really good vets and our dogs get very good, not minimal, we’re talking thorough vet care,” she noted.

Lately they’ve taken in a lot of dogs that foster families absolutely adore.

“Many people start fostering with the idea of adopting eventually when the right dogs come along,” she said. “We’ve just had a lot of really nice dogs, dogs that are abandoned or strays for no apparent reason.”

Sandoval herself is fostering seven to eight dogs right now, not to mention her own animals. The reasons she and volunteers do what they do is because of the outcome – connecting animals to loving homes.

Zeus, one of their newest dogs, is a 4-year-old Dalmatian that had to be surrendered by a relative because his owner was deployed.

“He was born into and was raised by a military family,” she noted.

The man who has applied to adopt him works for the sheriff’s department.

“When things fall into place like that, it’s like you know that’s when it’s worth it,” she said.

Sandoval recalls rescuing two dogs, sisters, from being put down. One she had found a family for, but the other she just couldn’t leave behind. The dog she rescued is now in training to be a service dog.

“That close to a needle and now she’s going to be a service dog,” she said.

The huge commitment pays off when the animals find homes.

“These are dogs that don’t have anybody else, they’ve already been thrown away by society in one respect or another,” said Sandoval.

Jorgenson said she likes to focus on the end result, finding these animals homes, where in their case, if no one had intervened they were basically on a death sentence.

“At the end of the day it makes it all worth it when you find these cats, clean them up, get them healthy find them a loving home.”