‘Someone loved them’: As the ICE surge continues in Minnesota, pets suffer
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On a cold Friday night, Christine Onesky saw an urgent plea on Facebook to help six dogs that were dropped off at the animal rescue Pet Haven in St. Paul.
Onesky, a foster dog parent, knew she had to help and rushed over. When she got to Pet Haven something felt different. The chihuahuas, Snowball and Cinnamon, were friendly and well cared for, which isn’t always the situation when fostering.
“You could tell they were well fed, they were all sweet, they were all nice — which, a lot of times, they're not always that way,” she said. “Someone loved them. You could tell.”
The next day, she found out the two dogs now in her care were surrendered by their owners before they were detained and deported by U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.
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As the ICE surge continues, the fate of the pets affected remains uncertain. Organizations like Pet Haven, the Bond Between and ICE Hurts Animals, Too have mobilized overnight as hundreds have reached out for help with pets in the last several months. There are requests for food, dog walking, vet care and many foster parents.
Starting in the early fall, Kerry D'Amato, the executive director for Pet Haven, started noticing a shift that would define the months to come: healthy dogs with collars were running stray. They were being abandoned in streets and cars, their owners simply missing.
As the news came that federal immigration operations were increasing in the state, D'Amato realized what she had been witnessing — these were the pets of Minnesotans who had been detained or deported.
“With the ICE occupation, we have had to shift and pivot on how we support the community. We started hearing that people were sheltering in place. They weren’t leaving, they needed food. And we realized that when people suffer, pets suffer too. So we quickly jumped into action,” she said.
They started a community response fund packing bags for those in need with pallets of supplies in their warehouse, with donations across the globe. Each to-go bag has a note to those sheltering that reads, “Stay strong. Minnesota loves you.”
Known volunteers do secure drop-offs in pairs with a month's worth of food and other requests like toys or blankets. Two content creators, Dog Days of Minnesota and Simon Sits, teamed up to raise awareness of the need and helped raise donations.
Like others, Pet Haven has had internal conversations about how long the surge will last. While federal officials say that fewer than 1,000 agents remain in the state, D'Amato isn’t noticing the need lessen. She says she believes the ripple effects from the surge, like the care and reunification of pets, will continue.
“I think that we are going to see more people self-deporting because they don't feel safe, and as a result of that, we're going to see more pets in need of help,” D'Amato said. “The challenge with ICE is, really, these pets have families. We want these pets to go back to their families. We don't know where their families are. We don't know how to find their families and we don't know how their families can find us.”
Similar to Pet Haven, the Bond Between has experienced an influx of need. And while they are ready to meet the demand, they also must balance the stress of new daily operations.
Food shelf coordinator Annetta Santodonato started her position in December, and since then, most days have consisted of organizing hundreds of donations and meeting with distributors. Mutual aid leaders often pick up donations from the Bond Between and get them to those in hiding. Santodonato said seeing the work in action has made her proud to be a Minnesotan.
“There's something that, for me, clicks when I'm helping somebody and it feels like I'm being a part of the bigger picture, and when I'm handing bags to folks who maybe have snuck in right at the end of shift — because it's dark, and they can get what they need, and quick run home, the tears in their eyes, the tears in mine, the hugs. It's been incredible,” she said.
At their other location, they have also helped with vet examinations and respite foster care and surrender. Carrie Openshaw, the vice president of community engagement, said more than 16,000 people clicked to read a blog post the organization did about how to care for pets during the surge.
In the application for one dog’s surrender, their owners wrote: “We are an immigrant family, struggling with what is going on. We are highly stressed and leave with fear that something might happen to us and our children. Even taking Ryuk on a walk makes us anxious. We love Ryuk so much but we can no longer care for him.”
By the time a foster was found for Ryuk, his mental health had decreased and the decision was made to send him to a board-and-train partner who will help him transition into his new life without his family.
‘These are our neighbors’
Emily Anderson and Dallas Rising are in the same Facebook neighborhood group. Both had been working in different areas of mutual aid during the surge; but after Anderson posted about a pet food porch pantry in her house, they knew they needed to connect and expand their reach.
They started ICE Hurts Animals, Too, a mutual aid group in Minneapolis helping with animal needs for those in hiding or the future for pets whose owners have been detained or deported.
Because the need in the community for pet care has been so high, Rising, an organizer and animal chaplain who provides support to pets and owners, said creating the group felt needed.
“Food shelves are so important. They're so important. And also, in this time of increased need and desperation, that's why we see mutual aid groups stepping in to fill up some of the gaps. Because the food shelf system, even though as great as it is, is just not designed for a crisis like this,” they said.
Those in need fill out requests through an encrypted link, and drivers come and pick up bags to be delivered from Anderson’s house. Rising leads the group and says over 50 people are involved, including vets and dogwalkers volunteering their time and skills.
While they’re prepared to help residents as long as needed, Rising said donations have lessened and believes people think the need is going away as the number of federal agents stationed in the state decreases. They question this, and they emphasize that even if some agents do leave, people will remain in hiding for months to come.
“It’s been really hard because the eye of the public has moved on,” Rising said. “The bonds and the love that we have for these animals in our lives is so strong for so many of us that dealing with the uncertainty and the terror of all of the violence that is happening around — the fear of being separated from your family and also not knowing necessarily what will happen — it’s really intense.”
Alex Hansen moved from Boston to Minneapolis in January and immediately joined his neighborhood Signal chat. One night, Rising had shared that they were looking to foster several cats whose owner was detained by ICE.
Hansen went to pick up a cat and decided to choose a black and white cat later named Casper who was the least friendly, as he was worried about the chance of finding a family to adopt him.
He quickly became a foster-fail when Hansen adopted him. He is still shy, but Hansen says he is getting braver every day. As a new resident to the city, he said jumping into local mutual aid efforts helped him get to know his neighbors quickly and understand and make him passionate about ways to help.
That’s what Anderson hopes ICE Hurts Animals, Too can do: strengthen community for everyone, even furry neighbors.
“It can be heartbreaking and also energizing. We do this because this is our city, this is our neighborhood, these are our neighbors, these are our loved ones and family members that are being impacted. It feels small and big at the same time,” she said.
