Their names are Bongo, Pinky, Spanky and Danni Socks.

They were abandoned, or mistreated, by the people who were supposed to care for them.

They gaze sadly with big brown eyes from their pictures on a Web site, hoping to charm someone into adopting them.

“He is an example of dog’s ability to forgive man for what horrible things have been done to him,” reads the description of Danni Socks, a miniature pinscher-terrier mix whose owners cut off his ears and tail.

The Akron Canine Rescued Angels, started by two friends in the village, has saved these dogs and hundreds of others from out-of-state shelters that euthanize unadoptable pets.

The group relies on a network of dog lovers here and across the eastern United States who find and rescue the canines, nurse them back to health and raise them until they can find the pets a permanent home.

“It can’t be a hobby—it has to be a passion,” said Deb Bodenschatz, the group’s president.

The Akron group is one of a number of local organizations, including the SPCA Serving Erie County, that work hard to rescue unwanted pets and find them loving homes.

Members say lower spaying and neutering rates in other parts of the country, changes in state laws that make it harder for breeders to profit off their animals, and the recession have sent many dogs to shelters.

“There’s a lot of animals out there that need help,” said Debby Williams, veterinary services manager for the SPCA Serving Erie County.

Four million cats and dogs are euthanized in shelters in this country each year, according to a report released this month by PetSmart Charities. But 76 percent of survey respondents acquired their pets from a pet store, family member or some other source besides a shelter, the survey found.

That’s a problem because too many dogs and cats are ending up in shelters, sometimes because the owners aren’t responsible enough to realize buying a pet is a commitment.

“Dogs are not disposable,” said Beverlee Richards, the group’s vice president and Newstead’s assistant dog control officer.

Other owners are surrendering their pets because they lost their job or their home.

These pets often are purebreds and were well-cared for by their owners, but the shelters will euthanize them—after as little as a week —if they can’t find someone to adopt the animal.

“They will gas puppies—make no mistake,” Bodenschatz said.

Akron Canine Rescued Angels has relationships with the operators of shelters in Ohio, Kentucky and Alabama, as well as with rescue groups and animal lovers in those areas.

They won’t take dogs out of a shelter until they’ve had their health and temperment tested.

A foster “parent” takes care of the dog, including arranging for necessary medical treatment, while the group tries to find a permanent home for the pet.

“I love the labs. I sometimes look through the lists and pick the dogs that no one else would pick,” said Suzanne Teagarden, a Town of Tonawanda resident who takes in dogs for the group and serves, with Crystal Frank, as a team leader.

Most of the time, pet lovers who live near the out-of-town shelter drive the dogs to this area. On occasion, a Pilots N Paws airplane flight will carry a load of dogs for local groups.

Two friends who met through another pet-rescue group, Bodenschatz and Richards incorporated the Akron Canine Rescued Angels group in 2008.

It has grown to 40 active and inactive volunteers and foster parents who found homes for 238 dogs and two cats in 2009.

To find someone willing to adopt the dogs, the group advertises the pets on its own Web site, akroncaninerescuedangels. org, on Facebook and on Petfinder.com.

Bongo, a boxer whose paperwork says he is 5, got here a little over a month ago.

He’s had a rough life, losing his right hind leg to amputation and suffering scarring on his other hind leg, likely following an accident or other trauma.

Bongo also had a painfully embedded collar — which occurs when a collar is too tight and is left on for an extended period — and was “skin and bones” when he arrived, Teagarden said.

Today, Bongo hops along fairly steadily on his one back leg, is friendly around strangers, snores loudly and produces an amusing amount of flatulence.

“It was like having an old man stay with me,” Teagarden joked.

The group has found a potential home for Bongo. Teagarden’s latest foster dog is Danni Socks—she calls him Sox—the 2-year-old miniature pinscher-terrier mix who had his ears and tail cut off.

There are so many photos and stories of vulnerable pets that tug at the heartstrings of the volunteers, and they know they can’t help all of them.

But after Teagarden saw a picture of a chocolate lab and her 10 3-week-old puppies, she convinced her parents to drive with her next weekend to a shelter in tiny Brighton, Tenn., to pick up the canines.

“I can’t sleep at night knowing they’re going to die,” she said, though Teagarden convinced the shelter to take the dogs off the euthanasia list.

The Web site of Buffalo Humane, another pet-rescue group, lists 70 such groups throughout the Buffalo and Rochester areas, including the local SPCAs.

Many take in only dogs or cats, and some are breed-specific, but the dedicated members of the organizations say they work together to try to save as many homeless pets as they can.

“We can’t save them all, but we can be there for that one animal,’ ” said Carol Tutzauer, a Wilson resident and president of Buffalo Humane.