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Animals need help in Chicago's south suburbs due to overcrowding, air conditioning issues during heatwave

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Updated  August 23, 2023 10:10pm CDT
Homewood
FOX 32 Chicago

Suburban animal shelters need help with fosters amid heatwave

The heat this week has had a serious impact on some suburban animal shelters as their air conditioning struggles to keep up. They are now asking the public to step up to help keep their animals safe.

MATTESON, Ill. - The heat this week has had a serious impact on some suburban animal shelters as their air conditioning struggles to keep up.

They are now asking the public to step up to help keep their animals safe.

The South Suburban Humane Society in Matteson is beyond capacity right now. On Monday, 17 dogs were dropped off.

Animals are being doubled up and some are being stored in offices. 

Over at their Homewood Adoption Center, their AC units are on overdrive and struggling to keep up with the extreme temps. 

They were hoping to relieve some pressure off their other adoption center in Homewood during the high heat this week, which is having some air conditioning issues. Due to the increase in capacity, they can’t.

"We have a couple of dogs in offices, it's just like a constant Tetris game of trying to get them moved around the shelter," said South Suburban Humane Society CEO Emily Klehm. "It's sort of maintaining a comfortable temperature. We're hoping we can just get through 24 more hours of this and then, you know, hopefully, we're through this heatwave."

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If the AC does go on the Fritz, they will relocate the pets to their Matteson location and hope that more foster parents come to the rescue.

"It's an opportunity for me to just love on a dog for you know, however long they need it," said Heidi Kocur, who drove from Chicago to Matteson to foster a dog named Dew on Wednesday.

It was only after hearing about a social media plea that she decided to foster a pup.

The South Suburban Humane Society says around 45 animals have found foster families, and they've received around 100 calls and emails from people interested in helping. Adoption fees are being waived though the end of the week for every cat or dog that's older than six months.

If you want to foster an animal the whole process takes about an hour, so go on their website: southsuburbanhumane.org, pick a pet and their doors for foster families open at 9 a.m.