(CNN Air Max) -- Food banks across the country kicked into high gear for the holiday season this week in an effort to feed America's hungry. But a few instead homed in on an often overlooked casualty of hard times -- the family pet.

"It's the forgotten pets that go by the wayside," said Ann King, founder of an Atlanta-based nonprofit group called Save Our Pets Food Bank.

Appalled by tales of pet owners compelled to hand over their cats and dogs to shelters, King formed her organization in 2008 in an effort to provide cash-strapped owners a way to keep their canine and feline friends.

Each year, between 3 million and 4 million cats and dogs in shelters are euthanized,Cheap Air Max according to The Humane Society of the United States, a Washington-based animal advocacy group.

"I've had people say to me, 'I'm down to my last half bag (of pet food) and I don't know what to do,'" King said. "People sometimes just cry because they need help."

But King, also the pet food bank's executive director, said that unlike traditional food banks, her group doesn't typically benefit from a resource boost around the holidays.

"Most people don't think to give to us and funding is a big problem," she said.

"A lot of the homeless shelters also don't allow pets. So a lot people often just drive up to the local animal control centers and push their dogs out," unable to feed them, she added Cheap Air Max 2009.

Some people, out of work or under-employed, are forced to live in their cars but still refuse to say goodbye to their animal companions, she noted.

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