CHICAGO & CHICAGOLAND
ANIMAL SHELTERS, S.P.C.A.s &
HUMANE SOCIETIES
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People have come together worldwide, in Illinois and in Chicagoland and
Chicago to assist a special class of friends unable to speak for
themselves — our pets and companion animals. These people have
formed humane societies and animal adoption and rescue agencies of
local, regional, national and even international scope. Most humane
societies and animal rescue agencies are not-for-profit organizations,
relying upon donations, grants and volunteer assistance. The focus and
goals of each agency vary, but as a group they serve to perform and
promote the following important functions:
- Protection, rescue and placement (through adoption or return to owner)
of lost, endangered and abused domestic animals;
- Education of pet owners and prospective pet owners regarding the
health, safety and proper care of pets;
- Operation of clinics to insure that even low-income pet owners can have
their animals innoculated against common diseases;
- Sponsorship of humane programs to limit or reduce populations of
domestic animals that have, through abandonment and subsequent
overbreeding, become feral (wild); such programs typically include
sterilization (neutering) and redomestication;
- Introduction and sponsorship of legislation regarding protection of
animals.
If you would like to become a pet owner (Pet caretaker is a better
term; if you are a true pet lover you realize that pets should not be
treated as property and that your pets really own you.), believe you can
do so responsibly (See our
Pet
Health & Safety Tips.), and wish to adopt a pet in Chicago or
Chicagoland, please consider pet adoption from a Chicago animal shelter
or from a Chicago SPCA, humane society or pet rescue. When you adopt
a dog, cat, or other pet, you provide love and care to an animal who
might otherwise never find a home. Tens of thousands of abandoned or
lost pets are euthanized annually in Illinois alone because no one comes to
their aid and the cost to maintain them in animal shelters is simply
too high. Dogs and cats are the preferred pets of Americans; sadly,
this makes them the most abundant and hence, as a group, the most
neglected. Let’s each do our part to help all of our
“fur-footed” friends find the good homes they so richly
deserve; adopt a dog, cat or other pet, donate to or volunteer at a
Chicago pet rescue.
Authored by Kenneth L. Anderson.
Original article published 14 May 2005, updated 22 June
2006.
Follow links to the right to learn more about animal protection organizations in
Chicago and Chicagoland, which include dog adoption and rescue agencies,
cat adoption and rescue agencies, and other pet adoption and rescue
agencies such as humane societies and S.P.C.A.s.
At the left margin, Related Links address topics of interest
pertaining to pets and companion animals. View the
Pet Adoption & Rescue SiteMap
for a complete list of animal adoption agencies, humane societies and pet placement topics.
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