Animal Welfare League in Chicago Ridge, Illinois, needs to remove Chris Higens, president of the Animal Welfare board, and correct the following animal injustices which are currently taking place inside the facility under her guidance: 

1. Animal Welfare League does NOT allow outside rescues or other animal organizations inside its doors to assist with adopting its dogs, even when those rescues are breed-specific with special knowledge and resources. This practice directly results in fewer adoptions, overcrowding in the shelter, less exposure to potential adoptees, and drastically reducing adoption chances. This overcrowding also contributes to the need for an increase in euthanasia.

2. Animal Welfare League asks for and accepts various donations from the public, such as beds, treats, and food, that are not regularly given to the animals in their care, as intended. Instead, these donations often remain under Chris Higens's lock and key or are sold in their on-site store solely under Chris's discretion. 

3. Animal Welfare League has upwards of 100+ dogs in their facility at any given time. As of January, 2019, the facility cited Chicagoland's cold weather conditions and suspended all dog walking by volunteers. Currently, this volunteer ban is still in effect (as evidenced by AWL's website and social media) despite the gravely negative impact this has on the well-being of the animals in their care who are no longer getting the consistent walks and socialization they so desperately need to survive and thrive under already stressful and fearful living conditions. According to PAWS Chicago, in 2018, volunteers worked a combined total of 143,933 hours in their facility which "enabled (them) to continue to save lives and expand services." In addition, ccspca.com reports that "the most important volunteer job is dog walking...It is the easiest cure for kennel stress, which includes hiding in the back of the kennel, refusal to eat, aggression, repetitive barking, urination, etc. If dogs can get out of the kennel on a regular basis, this helps relieve the stressors of the kennel and will in turn begin to act happy and healthy." Even on Animal Welfare League's own website they state regarding volunteers, "You will soon come to realize just how valuable you are to the animals." Yet, under the orders of Chris Higens, volunteers have been turned away weekly since January 2019 despite multiple attempts to help these animals who, unfortunately, cannot help themselves. The result today evidenced first-hard by workers, volunteers, and patrons is dogs remaining in their kennels for extensive and inhumane periods of time, little to no socialization or enrichment, and no consistent interaction due to the sheer volume of dogs in comparision to the number of employees.