The caption on this photo taken by a volunteer at Chicago ACC reads, “A common sight at the city shelter. A pleading look from Jade. She wonders why her pavilion isn’t getting walked.”
JADE, per the same volunteer, is a “sweet, small girl, easy to walk.” Yet, when a potential adopter is forced to go directly to the city government to adopt her, the same volunteer changes her story. Now we learn that JADE has “stranger danger” and in a showing she was “shy and uneasy” and turns out that she’s always been that way. Furthermore, JADE was “vocal and showed her teeth” to another dog during a playgroup tryout and the lead handler, a high-stature volunteer, declares her an “only dog.”
Then there’s her behavior in the pavilion. JADE is stressed, and the few times she is taken outside her cage for 15 minutes, she resists. Jade doesn’t want to go back in her cage. She bites her leash, and as she goes to do so, she mistakenly pulls the volunteer’s pant leg. So now, she’s labeled as a “bite risk” and only a “select few” of the very experienced high-statured volunteers can walk her. So now Jade cannot be directly adopted. Now she can only leave through a Rescue and a foster.
Which Rescue will save JADE? None. Why not? Because she’s now labeled by a volunteer, not a trainer, a volunteer, as reactive, aggressive and an “only dog.”
Not a one of the three Rescues that regularly take “pit bull mixes” ( IF they ARE “pit bull mixes”) will take a chance on a dog labeled “reactive,” or “only dog.” These three Rescues are filled to the brim, they are drowning, they have dogs in boarding, with bills that are in the thousands every month.
Three years ago there were many more Rescues saving pit bulls regularly. Where are they now? Taking dogs from the South, not saving their own, our Chicago dogs. Why? Because they had difficulty with management at CACC, which they say is uncooperative.
And are there new Rescues that have gone through the process of applying to save “ pit bull mixes” from CACC? Oh yes. Yes, there are. Where are their applications? CACC has been sitting on them for months, some AS LONG AS A YEAR.
So back to JADE, incarcerated, 24/7. Her story is not unique. The dogs at CACC are taken out every four days for 15 minutes. Their cages are cleaned once a day in the morning, then they are fed. They lie in their feces and urine. They don’t see the sun. They don’t get exercise. They get no stimulation. They cannot sleep for the constant deafening barking of 200 dogs. There is no fresh air circulation.
So is JADE stressed, fearful, or aggressive? With no chance of being adopted or rescued, her anxiety will increase, and one day she will disappear from the database, and the next morning’s outcome report will show that she is dead. Because CACC gives no warning, no chance or time to network her more aggressively to a wider audience. No chance to save her life. Why not? Because CACC and its leadership, management, even the hard working volunteers DON’T WANT YOU TO KNOW THAT THEY ARE A HIGH-KILL FACILITY. They don’t want the city tax payers, the people in Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana and Iowa, who travel to adopt from there, to know that they kill. A lot. 709 dogs, many like Jade, have been killed between January through April this year.
The new Mayor says that Chicago is a world class city. This is NOT how a humanitarian government facility in a “world class city” is run. This is not how a community shows compassion for discarded companion animals awaiting a second chance at love in a loving home.
PLEASE email the Mayor, his assistant, and the Governor of Illinois and tell them that Chicago ACC is in crisis and the killing needs to stop. Please reach out to them POLITELY. Tell them that Chicago ACC must have a new Executive Director who is NOT in government and who CARES about the animals. Ask them to carry out a national search for someone with a vision and a plan to save lives. And tell them that CACC is shamefully underfunded.
If you live in Chicago, tell them that you want your tax dollars to go towards saving lives and improving conditions. Tell them that you want transparency.
If you live in the suburbs, in Illinois and bordering states, tell them that CACC gets many adopters and fosters from your area and that the killing needs to stop. CACC needs to make adoption more accessible to you.
If you live anywhere else, tell them that the eyes of the country are on CHICAGO, and that violence and a culture of secrecy are wrong as it is being played out in a government facility that is supposed to be sheltering the innocent animals that cannot advocate for their life. Instead, they are vilifying these dogs, making them harder to adopt and EASIER TO KILL. CACC’s practices are archaic when it needs to be at the cutting edge of progress.
**Just two sentences needed
In ALL methods of communication, request a response.
**Mayor:
brandon.johnson@cityofchicago.org
or: letterforthemayor@cityofchicago.org
Phone: Chicago: 311; outside the city of Chicago: 312-744-5000
**Request a call back.
FB: https://m.facebook>Chicago
Instagram: chicagosmayor
Twitter: @ChicagosMayor
CC: jessica.higgins@cityofchicago.org
Governor of Illinois: J. B. Pritzker
Governor: https://www2.illinois.gov Go to “Voice an Opinion” section or “Contact Us.”
phone: 217-782-6830 or 217-782-6831 Request a response
FB: https://m.facebook.com>GovPritzker
Instagram: govpritzker
Twitter: @GovPritzker
Mail Address: 401 S. Spring Street, Springfield, IL 62704
THANK YOU ALL! CHICAGO’s DOGS NEED YOU!!
**Would you kindly tell us how you reached out?