CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- Volunteers with the Anti-Cruelty Society and PAWS Chicago returned from animal rescue operations in tornado-ravaged Oklahoma today, bringing dozens of dogs that are going to need foster and forever homes.
Thirty-one dogs made the 15-hour journey in two vans, which arrived to the Little Village Medical Center, 3516 W. 26th St., to a loud cheering crows who applauded their arrival.
The dogs, who came from the Cherokee County Humane Society, were taken out of the Oklahoma shelter because it is overcrowded with other dogs who have become homeless because of the storms, said PAWS founder and chairman Paula Fasseas.
"People will be lined up and they'll say, 'This is it, I can't move one more time. I have to give up my pet,'" Fasseas said.
She said it's common for people to drop off their dog at the shelter in times of natural disasters with the intention of coming back a few weeks later. But that creates pile-up and people don't always return.
Watch the arrival of the dogs below.