Animal Welfare League

When I went to find a pet to adopt the other day I was shocked to learn that not only is this a kill shelter, it has the highest euthanasia rate in the city. Over 40% of dogs entering the place are killed and over 60% of kitties. Wth is that!!! They did not tell me it is a kill shelter quite the opposite the literature states they only euthanize the terminally sick and those not adoptable (presumably due to behavior). My friend showed me the facts on this shelter and I was shocked. Maybe if more people knew the truth they would choose to save the animals here instead of buying from pet stores or gong to paws and tlc
Obviously the animals need people to save them from this place. That being the case I would think the staff could make people feel more welcome and maybe take better care of the ones stuck in the filthy dirty cages with no water, bedding or food. Instead they treat customers as if they are a bother to them and believe me they weren’t running around taking care of animals, more like sitting down doing nothing. I cannot imagine what the the back rooms look like if the public viewing areas are this bad. Utterly horrifying, if you are looking to save a dog or cat this is the place!!! Seems they’re all in danger by the look of these statistics. This was a Very very sad. This isn’t right and most certainly isn’t animal welfare at its finest. Shame on the people that run this place.
I will go back to save a dog or maybe two but it’s not going to be easy to walk in there again.

They sold me a cat with ring worm, my whole family got it! I asked them what she had (I felt scabs on her head), and they told me she came in with fleas and she just had scabs from scratching. They lied to me, and my family suffered. This place is absolute garbage, I cannot believe they are allowed to do this to people. I’m a single mother with a six year old son. Thanks a lot animal welfare! This place is terrible! Beware if you buy an animal from them! They lie about the animals illnesses. Truly I cannot believe what they did was legal. They also forgot to put her microchip in! They gave me the papers, but there’s no chip! This place is a joke

I adopted my fur baby from here about a year and a half ago, and I’m so thankful AWL picked him up (he was a stray) giving me the opportunity to adopt him.

Please… Don’t adopt from here! They took our cat away because we could not pay 45 dollars after he ran out! There are better shelters out here. BTW, Don’t have a facebook page AWL If you are going to block anyone that speaks. It’s called constructive criticism.
Go to the South Suburban Humane Society in Chicago heights IL, Cheaper, and does not blackmail you.

If you are on low income this is the place… They often get disorganized so plan your time!

My mom and her dog, just moved to Chicago from a relatively rural area. Well, the Dog got out and was hit by a car. After calling around, I found that this place was the most affordable. Only $ 30 for an initial consultation. It may be cheaper, if you have low income needs. (We’ll be getting him pet insurance for now on.)
Fortunately, it is a low cost clinic. All together his consultation his surgery, an antibiotic shot, prescription for an antibiotic, an e-​collar & clipping his nails, costs us about $ 230. TIP: have them write the prescription for you & take it to Walmart for a discount.
Unfortunately, it is first come first serve. So be prepared to be there for a quite some time. It is not the nicest smelling place but they are also a drop off kennel and adoption center, fueled by donations and volunteers. (So, give them a break or come with some tattered clothes and help out a bit.)
The people are definitely over worked, but, you can tell they love their jobs and love pets. You can feel the love they have for animals and are not trying to be rude.
Here are my tips for surviving your stay:
* Come with you laptop or iPad, they have free internet.
* Bring your dog something to play with, so he/​she won’t be so intent on playing with others.
*Bring treats and/​or food. For the pet and yourself. You’re both going to get hungry.
*Make sure you have your sturdiest leash. *They’re other animals that may not be that friendly, so, pay attention to yours.
* If the pet is vomiting or losing bodily fluids, leave them in them in car until you’re called. You don’t want them to get worse.
*Be prepared to wait!
*if you have to wait on a pet in surgery, there’s a mall right around the corner and plenty of shopping.
*The dollar store down the street stocks up on dog treats, dog toys and a few other things you may need after your visit. So, stop in for low costs supplies.
Good luck and hopefully your pet feels better!

Adoption Only, we did not visit the Clinic. Okay, for all the people saying this place smells, is dirty and houses too many animals … if you would not breed your animals and they all were spayed/​neutered then this place wouldn’t need so many volunteers to deal with the mess; think of it that way. We adopted our sweet little girl cat almost a week ago at the Clear The Shelter event, AWL’s first time participating. It was like Black Friday meets the Shelter! It was absolutely crazy but when you got to the front of the adoption desk and saw the STACK of applications … wow. Each one of those applications was another pet going home and leaving the shelter. Congratulations to AWL for having so many pets ready for the hundreds of people that showed up last Saturday. Java the cat is now named Jupi and is settling into her new home. We will be back for a dog when we purchase a home.

My cat is dead. She died here. Charged for everything they could and never even told me what was wrong with her. Just a short phone call that she had died after being told repeatedly for 5 days that she was ok and doing better. Now my other cat is showing the same symptoms and I’ll need to take him somewhere else. If they knew she wasn’t going to make it, I would have taken her home so we could spend our last moments together. Don’t let your loved ones last moments be of feeling abandoned, and unloved in this filthy place. They could never give me an answer of what was actually wrong and tried to make me wait with other patients just to pick up her body.
This all started when she was misdiagnosed at the «Chicago Pet Clinic». Do not send your pets to either place.

My Pit Bull had a deep split on her left front pad, I had taken her to Banfield they wanted to put her under anestesia and suture the pad for $ 1200.00 and meds… I told them I aint got no grand plus. So they put a wrapped bandage on her paw and charged me $ 150.00. It didnt work. My daughter found out about the AWL on google, we took her there they stapled her pad, gave her a plastic boot for moisture control, her pad healed in 2 weeks… GOOD TO GO after removing the staples… $ 80.00 bucks… long wait but expected. Going to get my other dog eyes checked for eye boogers, we shall see but so far so good.

They took good care of my English mini bulldog they were patient with him and the nurse even played with him awesome place loved it and French Fry did too.

NO STARS– They killed my dog. Do not go to this clinic. The vet prescribed the incorrect antibiotic. My dog died seconds after we administered her medication. The vet (Hindu doctor) instead of apologizing told us to never bring in our second dog into the clinic. Basically told us to find a new vet. This place is dirty, unorganized, never returns phone calls and are unprofessional. And from the looks of all these reviews on Unilocal,I’m not not the only one who thinks like this. Too many suspicious deaths, go somewhere else.

I’m sure this place does some good for animals, but the clinic is terrible. Higher prices at other clinics and vets are worth it since this place doesn’t take proper care to prevent animals from spreading disease while waiting and other places are much more professional. Our dogs became ill after our visit for shots and then required a visits to other vets to get proper treatment. Save yourself time and grief and go somewhere else!

The front desk receptionist bitch lady by the name of Stacy I believe, needs to get an attitude check or be fired from this place. She is completely rude and a definition of a bitch. I don’t know why she’s working at the front desk when all she does is stare at her computer screen. That grumpy ass lady needs to realize that people come in to Animal Welfare League to help out the cause and adopt pets. She will drive the customers away. Seriously, I have seen other customers complain about how rude she was and ended up not adopting a pet in the end. She does not deserve to work at a place where it’s a helping cause to adopt homeless pets. She better watch it and act her age.

This is the only place I could find in Cook County (on a national holiday to boot) which was open and could accept, and care for a raccoon. Based on this fact alone I have to give them 5 stars.
My wife and I spent the entire morning of Memorial Day trying to figure out what to do with a baby raccoon that was seemingly abandoned on our property. After hours of calling around and nearly having to succumb to having a kill-​shelter come pick up the little guy (or gal) I was elated to find the Animal Welfare League would not only accept the raccoon but would also attempt to feed and care for it.
We found out that my neighbor had a raccoon trapped and removed by a service a few days prior and we surmised that was the mother. Apparently after a few days this baby left the nest looking for food and cried all night long. He/​she was barely ⁵⁄₆ weeks old and could in no way survive on their own.
I scoped up the little one, put it in a box, and drove straight down to AWL and they took it right in, no charge.

Came from the city just to drop off a homeless cat who had a litter of 6 kittens. The «transaction» could not have been more easier. Of course, you have to give a «donation», but it’s worth it. Good place, nice people.
I now can sleep well at night knowing she will be spayed and hopefully placed along with the kittens in a good home.

So my wife and I adopted our first dog daisy may here and was a great dog for 11 years but she recently passed due to a spinal issue but let’s take a little troll thru memory lane… my dog caught her toe nail in a afghan blanket let out a Unilocal and seeing as how we only used the aspca for shots and what not we decided to take her there after it became red swollen and tender so they charged us $ 85 (3 separate times) to cut the nail and squeeze out the puss sent home with antibiotics each time no x ray was ever pErformed in the month and a half we were going back and forth finally with it not getting any better we sought a second opinion and took her to summit animal hospital where they immediately took an x ray of her toe and said bone is infected and toe needs to be removed… thanks for taking my money animal welfare and doing nothing
Recently we spent 3 days looking for puppy since the passing of my daisy who was 11 years old and had our hearts set on a dog who was 9 months but as big as a house and I have a 5 year old I don’t need a big dog jumping on my kid once I realized how jumpy she was I declined… we began looking at puppies so that we can train them right and make sure that he/​she will be child friendly (to many dogs in cages that are not child friendly) so after we decided on a 2 month Shepard mix they pulled our application and told us dogs had to be at least 5 months because we have a 5 year old and the woman copped an attitude with my wife because she asked it would of been nice you told us this after we spent 3 days looking

I can’t speak for other people’s experience and weighed all my options before taking my beloved bugaboo here (only clinic).
After my regular vet gave me a $ 2000 quote for my pup I was on the hunt for second and third opinions. The wait yes it’s long but you have to come at the right time. Honestly the vet techs, workers, and doctors are a lot more friendly than some of the vets I’ve been to. The nurses made me feel so at ease. This place is over worked and they’re doing the best they can. My love got a teeth cleaning and extractions and after picking him up he walked out of there with his tail wagging. If he’s happy, I’m happy.
One woman that works payments have a bad attitude and I’m definitely not the only one that thinks so!
PS. broke my heart seeing all those animals that need a loving home. Please check this place out and bring anything you can to help out. Every lil bit counts.

This place only has 1 star because of the cheap service.
My dog had to have a bladder stone removed and her vet at Banfield was charging between $ 1,100-$ 1,500. I found out about this place and decided to take her here for the surgery because it would be significantly cheaper. Upon walking into the place, I was greeted with an overwhelming smell of dog shit, it was terrible but that has nothing to do with my rating. They have a low rating b/​c
1) When talking with the doctor, Dr. C (I forgot his full last name) he was moving SO fast that it gave off the impression that he was more concerned with getting her checked in so he can move to the next patient vs. making sure I understood everything
2) I had to leave my dog there for two days and when I called to see when I can pick her up, the first person told me a surgeon would call me and that she didnt know if my dog was ready to go yet. Two hours later I called back bc I hadnt heard from the surgeon and the second person told me surgeons don’t come in on Monday and that my dog was ready to be picked up
3) Once I picked up my dog that night, she still had blood and urine on her! They could have at least wiped her down before she left
4) I asked for her medical records so that I can take them to her original vet at Banfield. Once I got home and read them, they said that I checked her in because I said she couldnt walk on her hind legs (I NEVER said this!). The records also said that she has ARTHRITIS!!! WHEN I PICKED UP HER, NO ONE SAID ANYTHING TO ME ABOUT THIS!!! I ALSO, NEVER MENTIONED ANYTHING ABOUT HER NOT BEING ABLE TO WALK ON HER BACK LEGS!!! I called her vet at Banfield and they told me they have NEVER detected arthritis in my dog!
I am LIVID!!!
Never again will we go here

The three stars are for the fact that animals need homes.
My negative review is about the adoption process. These people are literally running around, not being helpful at all. There’s a ton of people behind the adoption desk, yet only one person helping anyone with questions or with adopting. I literally have been waiting three hours now. And I’m not even sure if I will get to adopt the dog I want. Obviously, I am very anxious.
I don’t live in the area and had to make an hour drive. So when I’m sitting down, watching someone answer the phone and have a conversation with her DAUGHTER about what to get from the store on her way home, instead of being helped, I’m going to be a little sour.
Total shit show. But, I want those animals to find homes, so… geez.

Dropping off needed supplies. Case of cat food. A case of dog food. Newspapers. There are so many homeless animals. Thank goodness for this shelter and clinic. Kudos to the staff and doctors at Animal Welfare League. Truly folks that go above and beyond everyday people.