Anderson Humane

This first paragraph is from a former employee:

One employee at the South Elgin, IL location of Anderson Humane said they loved their team but that upper management was more concerned with moving animals quickly than the quality of their homes. They also said that customer service and animal care were overworked and underappreciated, and that breaks were rare.

I have had 2 bad experiences with Anderson because of this same observation by the former employee:

First the Dog with severe fear and emotional issues. I spoke to them told them why I wanted a dog and that I was a first time dog owner. Yet they made me believe I should take this dog. That was wrong. This poor dog was way beyond my abilities. They should have known that. But all they wanted tlwas to place the dog. The help they provided was verbal training suggestions. One of them was hire a trainer to come to the house who could afford that?
For the dogs sake I returned her. They did not even know she was potty trained they told me she was not. Point being they do not know nor really care for the animals and they care less about the humans that do the adopting.

Now the 2nd animal a cat. To which I was very bonded. When I brought her home she had a severe gum infection. They had her for a month,why did they not take care of it. Plus she has back hip issue to the point of handicap. They did not know that. After pressuring and being somewhat mean they took care of it. But she suffered for at least 2 months like that. They did not know she was handicapped. What how could they not know. After that I spent most of my savings on vet care and equipment so she could get up and get around and enjoy being a cat. Even though through the 6 months I had her she was consistently sick the CEO Dean was lecturing me on how older cats like older people get sick. Very condescending. But the poor cat was always sick since the day i got her. So it was not like she was fine then got sick. I had no more money to take her to my vet. I reached out and yes because of how they reacted i was angry. I left messages, emails. I told them that i was going to write bad reviews and file a complaint to the Dept of Agriculture. Dean said i was threatening them. It was not a threat it is a fact. They made me surrender a cat i spent all my money and left myself without any savings. Instead of helping they made me surrender her. Now she is stuck in a cage and if it is like when i rescued her she is stuck in a smelly cage without help for her hips. She will not come out on her own.she is fearful and shy. I offered to foster her till they could find her a home with someone who could afford her consistent illnesses.
They do that. But not for me and Blue. Then they were like sign her away saying it is not working out. I said it is working out I live her and she has come a long way. They do not care. After speaking with Dean I see the way they are is get the animals out let's collect our phoney praises. They really do not care about the animals or the people who adopt them.

We adopted a dog who had come from Oklahoma which was heartworm positive. He is a wonderful ball of sunshine and an all around joy. However, working with Anderson to get him the proper treatment for his heartworms has been worse than pulling teeth.

I signed a contract agreeing to treat him through Anderson. I'd work with their staff to schedule the appointments and the treatments would be administered at Anderson's expense. If I take him elsewhere, the treatments are at my expense.

Anderson administered the first round of treatment. Communication was shaky then already, but he got his shots and all seemed well. They never retested him to see if the initial treatment worked, and no further treatment was discussed.

He has been on Heartgard since his adoption day, never missed a dose. So when our vet gave him a yearly Heartworm test and it came back positive, it was immediately clear that the first round of treatment didn't kill all the worms. He needs another round.

And that's where communication has fallen apart. I've tried to arrange appointments. I've reached out to anyone I could think of. I've had my vet reach out. The most we've gotten was a 'we'll get back to you' that never sees fruition.

Be very cautious adopting from here, especially in adopting any animals with medical issues with treatment plans arranged, because you have no way of knowing if they're going to leave you hanging halfway through an expensive medical treatment

--which counts as a pre-existing condition on any pet insurance you might get, so you'll never get any assistance from that route--

despite it being outlined in the adoption contract.