Animal Care and Control

Late yesterday afternoon my 17 year old Orange Tabby passed away.
Now, yes, I know I am forever mentioning my Cat Trouble, but the fact
is I have raised my Orange Tabby Mac for the last 17 years.
Now, Mac has been deteriorating for awhile now, growing old symptoms,
Because Lord knows they experience so much of what we do as they age.
And, call it Intuition but for the last 2 – 3 days I had begun to see a major
decline with his health, and just had this feeling.
So, yesterday, in the late afternoon, my Cat passed away.
He was on the Couch, snuggled in his Blanket.
And, since I at this time don’t have a lot of extra money I dialed 311.
I explained to them what had happened, this was 3:30pm.
This very kind 311 Dispatch Operator obviously relayed my message
quickly because it wasn’t very long before Animal Control made contact
with me.
They told me that they would be out as soon as possible to help me.
Less than 3 hours later they were at my door.
George/​Jorge from Animal Control was Compassionate and Kind, and he
took the time to talk with me about what had happened.
And, honestly, Animal Care and Control was the last place I would have
thought I would have needed to come pick up my deceased pet.
But. they were there, they came through with flying colors.
This was an Emergency Situation and they helped me get through it in
every way possible.
So, in ending let me just say that I will never forget the Kindness and
Compassion that Animal Care and Control, an organization run by the City
showed to me yesterday.
How they handled this unfortunate situation was professional in every way.
So, to the people who work so hard at Animal Care and Control on
S. Western, Thank You from the bottom of my Heart.
Because, for as long as I live your kindness will never be forgotten.

Unfortunately I was here today relinquishing my parents cat. Thankfully everyone here was friendly enough, under the circumstances. I do have one concern though. Along with the cat, I also brought his things like food, litter box, litter and to my surprise instead of the litter going to the needy kitties the security guard thought her own cat needed it more than they did and kept it for herself. I know this for a fact because she told me she was taking it for her cat the minute I mentioned I brought the bag with me. As nice as she was I don’t think using your job to get free things for your pet is entirely helpful to the poor animals that don’t even have a home to call their own. Smdh. Otherwise a good experience.

This should be the only place you look for a new furever friend.
The volunteers here are great and very helpful. They will help you find a dog or cat that pairs nicely with you or your family and go the extra mile to make sure your adoption goes smoothly.
People have a tendency to think there’s something wrong with shelter animals– however, these animals are here to no fault of their own. They were given up on, let to fend for themselves as strays, or some are actually born in the shelter. They are all temperament tested prior to making it to the adoption floor. They’re beautiful cats and dogs who are just looking for a family to love.
I highly urge you to go meet the animals here because many of them don’t have much time. Saving the life of one of these animals is one of the best decisions you will ever make.

I found that the adoption process there is very simple. Also, choosing a right cat was very easy. They would let a couple of cats out at a time to see how they get along. They will ask you for the records of vaccinations from your vet. Rabbis and distempster shots should be up to date. You current pets should be fixed. We got a very fun kitty from them. The kitty was sneezing. We took her to a vet, and they gave us $ 14 of antibiotics. The cat is now fine. I understand, though, that small kittens do not do very well there — too much risk of catching viruses. There were some kittens for adoption there almost always. Some are very tiny. Go and get the kitten there. The kittens are at greater risk and need to leave the facility soon. Do not think that kittens have better chances of being adopted. We selfishly adopted one of their funniest and the best cat ever.

The only reason this place is getting 3 stars from me is because I got my amazing dog from here and one of the volunteers was absolutely AMAZING.
My boyfriend and I went to the shelter when we were thinking about adopting. We met a beautiful Dutch shepherd and a wonderful volunteer took us out to play with him and taught us all about him and really helped us discover how great he was. He spent 3 hours with us playing with the dog and learning about the facility.
I don’t approve of how little the animals spend outside of their cages and how many aren’t even allowed to leave the cages, my dog also smelled absolutely horrid when I brought him home, but the worst part about my experience here was the adoption process. We were too late to adopt during our first trip, so I decided to come back the next day to pick up the dog. I spoke with a woman at the front desk to see what I would need to adopt the following day, and they just said I would need a form of payment, my license, etc. I arrived just after noon, when the adoption area opened. I immediately brought the paperwork to adopt my dog to the front desk attendant, who then informed me I needed to have vet records showing I’ve owned a dog before. My mom was with me and we called our vet to have them faxed over. The faxing machine was broken at CACC and it wasn’t receiving faxes from 3 different vets I tried. But I waited anyways. I took my dog out back to play and noticed he was peeing a little odd. I mentioned it to a worker who then informed me that a vet would take a look. A couple of hours later, I learned that the vets were booked and I wouldn’t be able to adopt the dog until the following week. I was not having it (considering I live about an hour away). Finally, the volunteer I was with the day before came in and he pushed the vet to see the dog that afternoon. While I waited, a similar situation happened to 2 other people who were there and they had to leave without adopting the pets they wanted because the process was too much.
The desk was extremely understaffed and the employees were visibly upset about it. They were very unhelpful and I got a different answer from every single person I asked a question from.
Then, after the dog was cleared of all health issues, I was informed that because my boyfriend and I live together, he needed to be there for me to take the dog home. It has been 6 hours since I began the adoption process and no one mentioned this to me.
Thankfully, the volunteer vouched for me and said my boyfriend was there the night before. They accepted my application and I had to do a few more things with the front desk and an interview with the vet before I could leave.
I’m all for ensuring these animals are going to good homes, but I’m more worried they’re not getting the homes they deserve because the process is almost impossible. Not everyone will sit around for 8 hours trying to adopt.
My dog is wonderful– still needs work in terms of some behavioral things– but he is SO loving, SO sweet and just amazing. I couldn’t have asked for a better pup.

One of my dogs passed away in April, 2014 and her companion was so depressed and lonely that I went to CACC to look for another dog. So many nice dogs looking for homes – We met Sassy, a 10-​mo old lab mix and took our dog for a meet and greet the next day. Five days later and with Sassy as a new family member, my other dog is no longer sad and has a new little sister to play with. Please rescue from CACC. Sassy is housebroken and already knows many basic commands – this is the work that CACC does to get homes for dogs. If you cannot adopt, consider volunteering your time if you love dogs.

As much as it kills me to know that they aren’t able to save all of the animals that come in and euthanasia is done here, I know that they truly care and do all that they can to place the animals. The volunteers are incredible and work around the clock trying to find rescues to pull dogs and cats. I’m all filled up with my own cats and dog but someday I’ll come here before going to a no kill shelter so that I can save a life! I’m also hoping to someday work as a volunteer or staff member here! Please come here to adopt before visiting other places as the animals here desperately need to leave before their time is up!

I got my dog from an Animal Care and Control Center. There are so many dogs that need families. It’s very affordable… $ 65 which includes shots, microchips and more.
Go and help save an animal friends :)

The people there really care about the animals’ welfare on a personal level. They were extremely helpful when I adopted my dog in 2011. And the adoption fee is only $ 65! Other places I’ve looked at were upwards of $ 300+. I was so happy with my beautiful and well behaved dog I went back in recently to adopt another. A woman working there was so helpful. She was extremely invested in finding homes for dogs and was so happy I wanted to adopt another. Unfortunately the dog I picked out didn’t get along with my dog and she helped me reconsider waiting until I find a perfect match. This really impressed me — CACC cares about each and every dog’s well being!

I stopped in to look for a missing outdoor cat from my neighborhood. The thought was he may have been picked up or caught by a TNR trap somewhere in the area. The girl at the check in seemed like she was in over her head even though her job is to check IDs and hand out visitor badges. Not sure if she was a volunteer or a city employee. I am going with city employee since all the volunteers seem really happy to be there.
I was told to sit in the waiting room to be called what I wasn’t hold is that they have tours every 30 to 45 minutes. The place is clean and huge and just sitting there I witnessed more than a few people just turning in animals that they didn’t want anymore. Those people should never be allowed to own another animal but that is a whole different subject.
The woman that took us on the cat your was very friendly and took us room to room looking for our lost cats. There are lots of animals that need to be adopted but all the volunteers seem happy to be there and taking care of the animals. I didnt find my cat and I wish I had time to volunteer but I am glad there are places like this that take care of lost or rejected animals.

We had so much help from the volunteer, Elyse, when we adopted a companion dog for our other Rescue dog. Elyse worked with us for weeks as we made sure this was the best fit for both my partner and I but as well as our current dog as he can be a little particular. I recommend this place very much… $ 65 for an animal current on all shots and just wanting a chance at a good life. Without the volunteers a lot more animals would go homeless/​killed.

I have visited CACC 5 times in the past year. On several occasions, I visited the cats in the Adoption Room. At one point, I pulled some kittens for a Rescue, which allowed me to visit the back areas of the shelter, not a site for the timid as there are hundreds of cats back there, who are all gorgeous as many are mixes with unique markings.
I have also visited the Adoption Room for dogs, and it smelled a bit. Most of my knowledge is about cats.
Let me tell you that this is not a PAWS or Treehouse location! They are the main drop-​off point for people who relinquish their pets in Chicago. So it they take in 20,000 cats per year, that is about 50 cats per day. Some get transferred to rescues, PAWS, treehouse, etc, but euthanasia is common if they place gets overcrowded or there is evidence of disease spreading due to crowded conditions!
If you have a heart, and want to save a pet (esp. a cat) from being killed, I’d suggest taking one from the Adoption room. These cats come with paperwork regarding their FIV/​FeLV status, and have been given a distemper & rabies vaccination, as well as a dewormer. They are all fixed, so for $ 65, it’s a deal. And taking one cat will allow them to move another cat from the back to the Adoption Area.
The cat I adopted had an Upper Respiratory Infection that was easily treated with L-​Lysine and, of course, she was isolated from my other cats until she got over it.

The volunteers at this place get 5 stars. There are not enough of them, but the ones that are there are completely helpful. The establishment gets 1 star because it’s so sad… Dogs bathing in their feces because they can’t go out often enough.
Two months ago, I bought my boyfriend’s birthday present (3 months early)… A Catahoula Leopard Cur /​Lab mix. Despite the fact that my Welsh Corgi was current on all of his shots, he ended up catching pneumonia from the new pup resulting in around $ 1,000 in vet bills for the both of them. So, we certainly ended up paying more than we had anticipated!
Regardless of what had happened, my boyfriend is completely in love with his new pup and my dog loves having someone to play tug of war and romp around with. We couldn’t have picked out a better dog.

This place was seriously the saddest place i have ever been. i found an abandoned puppy in a bag outside my apartment and tried to take her to PAWS, but because they cant take dogs in off the street, I was told to take her here. When I got there, the man taking the dog in wouldn’t answer any of my questions or give me an id number so that I could keep track of the dog (they have to be there 5 days so they can be claimed by an owner before being put up for adoption). So because I had no questions answered, I showed up on day 6 with a woman who was going to foster the puppy and get her out of animal control. The process was such a shit show, and the actual staff there were so insensitive (i guess you have to be, but still). There were hundreds of dogs in smelly, dirty cages and no water.
The volunteers there were very helpful though… you can tell those are the people who actually care about the animals, and they did their best to help everyone either find their lost pet or a pet they could adopt.

Here’s an updated thought (thanks to a very angry Faye F.) …
Similar to other shelters, if the location is extremely out of the way, you can hold adoption days at other locations.
This gives more visibility to the animals needng adoption.
Last I checked, Animal Control is a govt facility (ran by tax dollars) so, yeah, the obvious would be to have a better suited location or give more visibility in other ways. Couldn’t agree more, Faye, about the breeding but that really is no responsibility of Animal Control.

I just adopted my amazing new pup a few days ago and the experience was bittersweet, but let me explain. Prepare for your heart to break a little when you see all of the animals peering up at you through bars saying «pick me!». My boyfriend and I spent the entire day there trying to pick a dog to adopt.
The volunteers get 6 stars because they were so amazingly helpful and I give them so much credit for doing all that they do for the animals there. They were extremely knowledgeable and genuinely wanted to help. After going, I really favor adopting an animal from CACC because of the fact that these animals are given «time limits». Don’t let them live in a cage just to wait to be euthanized.
It was an eye opening experience and we ended up adopting our little bundle of joy, Ollie! And although it was sad being there, it was extremely rewarding knowing that we saved a life =)

The two most recent reviews (Tobias and Tracey) are stupid. Animal Control isn’t Petco where they get to open their new location in a nice strip mall in a convenient area with the most modern facilities and fluffiest friendliest animals. Yeah, they’re in the Pilsen industrial part of town — if you’ve got the 50 million bucks to build them a sparkling new facility in Lincoln Park I’m sure they’d love to hear from you.
Likewise, they’re not euthanizing the animals just for the fun of it — they’ve got limited time, space, resources, etc. and since they are legally required to accept every animal that arrives at the doorstep, they have to put others down to make room. They get the animals nobody else will take.
The should-be-obvious…don’t let your pets breed, don’t buy a $ 700 puppy and then decide you can’t handle it, don’t let your pets breed, don’t buy a tiger cub on the internet and then decide you can’t handle it, don’t let your pets breed, don’t go to a shelter expecting them to have 100% cute cuddly well behaved purebreds because you won’t settle for anything less, don’t let your pets breed, do some research on animal welfare/​overpopulation/​types of shelters, and don’t let your pets breed.
Yes, it smells bad, either like urinal cakes or urine — there are lots of animals and not enough staff and volunteers to keep it fresh as a daisy all the time. Instead of whining why don’t you volunteer or donate cleaning supplies?
So, my personal experience with Animal Control:
A few years ago my dog got out of the yard after my landlord left the gate unlatched. She was gone for three days. Each one of those days I went to ACC looking for her. I saw all the sad pitbulls, the injured strays, the scruffy cats. It was depressing as hell, but the staff members were doing their best and were very kind and helpful to me while I was looking for my girl. They didn’t make me feel embarrassed when I started crying when I finally saw my dog in one of the kennels. The process and paperwork of getting her back wasn’t really too bad and I was happy to pay the $ 65 fee to have her back. They even asked me if I needed a leash for her. I had cupcakes delivered to them the next day, and actually got a thank you note from them in the mail!

Animal Care and Control gets a bad rap for being a huge city-​run shelter. However, for the massive amount of animals they get coming through annually (about 36,000+ dogs, cats, and exotics like rabbits and birds), they do a pretty good job! I volunteered here a few times and while it may seem «depressing» to folks to visit, it’s a great place to find a dog or cat. They have something like 500 animals at any given time, so you’re bound to find the breed, size, age, or temperament that you want.
When you adopt from here, you save a life from being put to sleep. The animals have limited amounts of time to be adopted.
They provide amazing, discounted services too, such as low-​cost euthanasia for ailing pets, low-​cost spay/​neuter surgeries for something like $ 60 (consider that most vets charge at least $ 200 for that!), vaccines, microchippings, etc. They also do educational outreach for schools. All in all, it’s a massive facility run by the city of Chicago but they do a swell job rescuing animals from abuse and off the streets. Come find your new best friend today!

We went in looking for a short-​haired, preferably orange, male kitten and came home with a long-​hair, white, three-​year-​old female named Millie. She just looked at us with her head upside down and we knew she was ours.
I thought the shelter facility itself was very nice. The cages were bigger than the ones they have at places like PetSmart where they do adoptions, and while we were there one of the workers came in to clean the litter boxes. The food was good quality stuff, too. They were a little stricter than other shelters about letting people hold or touch the cats, but since they have to take *any* cat, it’s understandable they are concerned with the spread of illness.
The woman who helped with the paperwork for the adoption was very nice, reassuring us on all points about adopting a mature cat and what kind of behaviors we might have to look out for. She seemed to know Millie’s personality pretty well and all the information she gave was very helpful.
While we were leaving, a family came in to look for their lost dog — and they found him! All the workers at the shelter were thrilled to see the reunion. It’s clear these are people who care very much about the animals they have rescued and care for.

My sister was a volunteer here back in 2003 and she somehow convinced me to get a dog. I lived in a condo and wasn’t too thrilled with the idea, but it kills me to admit that in this case, my sister was right.
She lead me into the adoption area and I was overwhelmed immediately. There were hundreds of cages of poor barking homeless dogs. The selection was overwhelming and I had no idea what I breed I even wanted.
My sister, being my sister, had some strong ideas. She lead me to a geriatric Rottweiler who was old enough to be near death. Then she found a Great Dane who was so hyper that all four of his feet left the ground when he jumped up to greet us. Since I lived in an 800 square foot place, he didn’t seem like a good fit.
Finally, I saw one dog who wasn’t barking. He was a weird looking little Labrador mutt and I knew from the second I saw him that he was my dog. Animal Care and Control kept him overnight to neuter him and then he was mine.
That little dog has brought so much to my life and I am grateful to this place for introducing us. He’s definitely my buddy, and the best $ 60 I ever spent. I can’t imagine getting a dog from anywhere else.

I have to give ACC five stars because I love my dog SO much. We looked around at a lot of shelters and just didn’t find the right dog until we stumbled upon our lovable little pup at the pound.
It was a very easy process to adopt her (almost TOO easy). It took maybe 20 minutes of waiting after filling out an application and then, basically, someone told us we were approved and minutes later we were out the door with her.
As happy as I was about that… I was also a little concerned. Shouldn’t there have been more screening involved? But anyway, it all worked out in our case.
She did, however, have kennel cough and an ear infection. I think when we took her to the vet right after adopting her, the bill was somewhere around $ 250 for everything she needed. But, the adoption fee at ACC is only $ 65 (which includes spay/​neuter, city dog license and shots) so it was really no big deal.
But I guess this place will always have a special place in my heart because it’s where we found our dog, and I absolutely love the shit out of her!

I’ve heard that they don’t have enough volunteers to get every dog outside everyday :(
We adopted both of our puppies from here. We had checked out PAWS and a few other shelters but we just didn’t find a good fit for us.
Someone at Paws suggested that we go to Chicago animal care and control (they actually get a lot of their pets from them)
We fell in love with Mollie right away! (Perfect little angel at the shelter who is now a terrorist in our home. We think she tricked us just to get out of there, but we still love her just the same.) We filled out a form, sat down and talked to one of their staff and picked her up the next day! Sometimes they can go straight home with you but she had to be spayed. It was so easy, cheap ($ 60), and rewarding that we went back a couple weeks later and adopted Elliot. The staff was great in waiting for us to bring back Mollie to let the two dogs meet and play in their outside space.