Animals Deserving Of Proper Treatment

We got 2 tabby cat kittens from adopt in 2001. They were the sweetest, healthiest kittens. Full of energy and love for our family. They not only loved my very young children unconditionally but were popular with all of their friends. One of the 2 is Still here at 17 years old and still bringing us joy every day. I credit the foster woman for their behavior and health. Everyone we worked with during the adoption process was wonderful and caring of not just the kittens but also in finding the perfect fit for our family

ADOPT is a fabulous organization and since this last review was written, an entirely new and fresh faced board has been chosen and instated. I have met personally every board member and attend their meetings. They are a fabulous group and are really turning the prior board problems around completely. Very trustworthy. Their focus is 100% on the mission of the shelter, the animals, and the volunteers. I am very excited about where they will take the shelter. In the meantime, the quality and kindness of the volunteers has never fallen short. Great organization and I will be donating and volunteering for many years to come. I hope you find it in your hear to do the same!

I have mixed emotions of my time spent at ADOPT. I volunteered in their spay/neuter clinic for 3 years and loved it. The doctor there is very supportive and willing to answer questions. They mainly do spays and neuters for their own animals or cats and dogs from animal control or local rescue groups. Sometimes they do spays and neuters for verified low-income families as well. The days were long and the pace was sometimes crazy (they've since split the day into shifts and slowed down), but at the end of the day I always felt like I did something positive by helping to curb the pet overpopulation problem. In fact, I liked my experience at ADOPT so much that I left my IT career and went back to school to become a Vet Tech to work with animals full time! So, that's the good.

The bad is that the shelter's Board has major problems with in-fighting and it's gotten particularly bitter lately. In fact, I'm sorry to say that last I heard their focus was completely shifted away from the animals and toward the "us versus them" mentality that has taken over. Luckily the staff and volunteers are amazing and the animals are still well taken care of as a result.

Others have said that customer service is spotty and I have to admit that I've seen this first hand as well. Weekends seem to be better times to go in. They are busier, but the volunteers who come in on the weekends for adoptions actually enjoy working with potential adopters and tend to be better than staff who might be more "animal people" than "people people" if you know what I mean.

So, to sum up I'm sad to say that I just can't really recommend volunteering or even supporting ADOPT until the issues at the Board level get resolved. Even if you don't see the in-fighting first hand as a volunteer I think you can feel that there are problems in the moral of the staff and volunteers. The spay/neuter clinic is somewhat insulated from the issues, however, and if you are interested in veterinary medicine and surgery it may be worthwhile. Just brace yourself for the drama.

I recently adopted a cat from ADOPT, and the volunteers at the desk, with the animals, and completing the adoption process were very nice, courteous, friendly, and helpful. Maybe they learned from the bad review posted a few years ago and raised the bar on their customer service.

Unfortunately, I can't say the nice things I hoped I'd be able to say after visiting this animal shelter. My family and I were very excited to come to ADOPT in hopes of rescuing an animal in need and giving a home to a dog who doesn't have one. The staff was very unwelcoming, did not seem interested in showing us the dogs (despite the fact we came in during posted viewing hours), and were quickly dismissed. The shelter was surprisingly empty, which seems slightly odd, seeing as how there are millions of animals dying each year who could easily fill the kennel space. While we weren't expecting anything when we came to ADOPT, I was very surprised to be treated as though we were an inconvenience or intruder in the shelter. We had a desire to support the same cause that we believed ADOPT to be supporting (place homeless animals into loving homes), but apparently, that is not a priority to the organization. We moved on to Naperville Humane Society after ADOPT (it's about 5 minutes away), where we were warmly welcomed, given time and attention by friendly staff, and are thrilled to say we found a wonderful addition to the family. We have not only adopted a dog we love dearly from an amazing organization, but we have also found a rescue we wish to support financially for years to come and will gladly refer to anyone in the DuPage area looking for a new family member. I'm sorry to say ADOPT is a terribly disappointing organization that needs to take a serious look at what matters most to their organization. Treating potential adopters the way you do is such a sad disservice to your animals.