Me and my husband adopted three dogs from this organization. The dogs come with training and I have enrolled the last puppy in training. My husband is in a nursing home now and I needed a companion. They provide one on one help and are always there for you. The young volunteers work with the dogs and participate in adoption events. I love them! Dr Klein
We love FPALR! We live in Chicago and adopted 4 dogs from this organization! They have been doing a great job for 23 years now. Keep on doing the work that you do as we are all getting older and the new organizations have a different outlook. Our senior dogs appreciate you!
We have adopted 6 dogs from this organization. They are fantastic. Our kids have been volunteering for them for 5 years now!
This organization is fantastic In 2003 we adopted our first labrador The founder of the rescue is professional ethical and an empath, In 2015 we adopted our second labrador and in 2022 we adopted our third labrador. We absolutely love them
Highly recommend them
Review from Guidestar
This shady business doesn't deserve 1 star! First, I should've known something wasn't right when Illeana said that I had to microchip the puppy myself, the one I was about to adopt. She explained that it was very easy to do and that it wouldn't take much time. Being a first time adoptee, I wasn't sure how the whole thing worked. I had my kids with me and they immediately fell in love! I went through with the adoption and decided that I could take the puppy to get microchipped and that would take care of that. Illeana told me that they had a vet that took care of the shots and everything else the puppy would need. When we got home I noticed the puppy not acting normal and that he had diarrhea. It was obvious that he had worms and fleas. The next day I text Illeana to ask if this puppy was sick she claimed it was because of the change in his environment. She also said that I should take the puppet to the vet but assured me he was in great health. The puppy wasn't eating and my kids were not bonding with this obvious sick pup. I called and told Illeana what was happening and she told me I can bring back the puppy and that I would get my money back. I felt very uneasy about our conversation that I immediately wanted to stop payment but it was too late. After reading all the horrible reviews, my heart sank because I knew that I had been taken advantage of. I returned the puppy four days later and have't heard from anyone since! Six years later and I’m still waiting for my refund. I reported them to the BBB. My kids were heartbroken! it was our first experience and it was the worst. I had written a review of the whole thing when it first happened but I'm not sure why it got taken down. Lesson learned, I will do my homework in the future. But everyone needs to know about this company and how they run business. I even doubt that they are a rescue! I have told my family and friends about FPALR and hopefully no one else will have to go through what my family went through.
Our family has adopted five awesome dogs over the last 13 years from FPALR, and I must admit we are one lucky family! FPALR is a superbly run organization with the sole emphasis on rescuing, saving the lives of dogs in need and helping them get adopted into their furever homes. Our entire family (furry) and human highly recommend this rescue!
Beware. Adopted a dog and within 16 hours she was in the hospital with parvo and we’re now expecting around a $7000 vet bill. When my dog first got sick I thought it might be from changing her food too quickly and i called the shelter and the woman made me feel bad saying something lime “it makes me worry when the dogs are so great here and then leave and aren’t doing well.” She was trying to shift blame on me from the beginning when I was trying to do everything to help my dog. Absolute nightmare this week has been. I understand that this can happen as it’s a shelter and dogs interact and clearly this one doesn’t vaccinate well. But the nightmare comes when trying to get any proof the dog has been vaccinated and communicate with the shelter. The woman who adopted the dog to me is not professional and will do anything to discredit people who leave a bad review. She started discrediting people when I brought up reviews while adopting the dog for absolutely no reason. She lies and lies and her story always changes. She told me it was a false positive parvo test. If I had believed her my dog would have died. She told the doggy daycare they use to board the dogs it was a false positive as well, so BEWARE because this means they’re not taking this seriously and more dogs have the virus. The virus takes 10-14 days to incubate in a dogs body, so she got it when she was with the shelter. They claim not to have a single employee and I’m quite sure they give fake names to avoid responsibility, the shelters vet told us to talk to Ileana for vaccination records and the woman we called at ileanas # said her name was Chris. So confusing. When I first contacted the shelter that the test was positive the woman was yelling at me and insisted I use their vet which i refused because everything was so sketchy I didn’t feel comfortable anymore and she threatened to send me a letter from her lawyer for no reason! The shelters vet also told us she never vaccinated the dog (i have email proof) and that a vet isn’t even required to administer vaccinations. Apparently anyone can vaccinate a dog, i could buy them online and do it myself if I wanted to. This has been a terrible experience, I hope my dog survives and she has been the only good thing in the entire experience thus far.
FPALR is one of the best organizations run by an excellent team. With 17 years of experience they are a solid organization
Just adopted a puppy from the Petsmart in Schaumburg! Great service pleasant to talk to they cover many services and this group helps out on their own free time! They are funny and just good people!
We just adopted our 6th labrador from them and we did a lot of research. For these career oriented people and highly educated they accomplish many good things. They have police officers on board and they are very professional very busy people. They also have two humane investigators. They are ethical and just great people. They rescue the owner surrenders locally as well ,and most rescues that want fast turn over for fast funds will not save our poor local dogs. We cannot say enough about these great people
Review from Guidestar
Ethical hard working has been around for many years Doing their best in this hard economical times trying to get better all of the time
Review from Guidestar
Great people great dogs and we love them! We have two great black labs from them and we just updated their pictures on FB great with kids and fantastic labs!
Did not find the review from cutofflady helpful I contacted the rescue as I work for a non profit and they pointed this dog out to be a dog by the name of Allie and min pin mix. This little dog is sweet and has been readopted to a compassionate family. The dog came back smelling of cigarette smoke and this lady said she discovered that she does not like dogs! Thank god this dog came back immediately. The rescue does give credits for six months but would not readopt to this lady and she is on a DNA list. FPALR is an excellent rescue and they save many many dogs!
Review from SamCar1 is not helpful! Does not serve any purpose! This is a rescue and this person seems to think they are better than anyone including the rescue vets. I am an adopter and pointed out this review to the rescue as they did not know and this person adopted Libby a dog that was pregnant and delivered puppies and was a golden. This dog could not be spayed after a period of time nor could she have gotten HW treatment + this person expected the kill shelter to do a HW test...Lady shelters are kill shelters and only kill! Glad you live in your own world!
I adopted my 3d dog from this organization over the course of 14 years! Love them!
The group now is very established with a great group of people. I adopted Simba a cat and Allie a
min pin mix. Poor Allie the previous adopter decided that she is not a dog person! and made up all of these bad stories about Allie the little precious dog. Allie loves people kids and other dogs and cuddles with my cat and my Poodle! Love this organization!
I have been donating and supporting this organization for the past 14 years! Love them!
I have referred many adopters! They spay and neuter for low income and they have spayed a cat
from a woman that could not afford 300. It turns out the cat was pregnant at one time and had an infection. This person was so lucky to have this rescue , help her cat by using the services of their veterinary clinic and to pay for it. Excellent Excellent organization in many ways!
This organization is excellent in every way! They always go the extra mile and the adopters are part of the family. As an adopter and a volunteer for another organization which I have been with for 10 years , I found my pet here.
I happened to read the last two comments and asked the key people in regards to Libby - a yellow lab golden, this person was rude with the foster mom, and declined all vets as they were of different nationality and chose to use their own vet. Of course their vet loved to pocket 1000+ for the dog and did not even perform the treatment right. No organization refunds money or pays the regular vet fee. This organization refunds adoption fees and they always take their animals back. However a ridiculous person should go on the do not adopt list. The comment written by the second person is an irate volunteer who was asked to leave that runs an organization that is not even non profit or 501c3. But in any case I am sure the organization was happy to take the dog back as it was in the hands of an irresponsible person, especially if it was biting left and right and non stop!
i adopted a dog from them back in April. I had problems with the dog and never was able to contact anyone of if i left a message they never called back.. Finally I got ahold of someone and they didn't want to take the dog back Finally in May they agreed to take the dog back after it attacked my neighbors their dogs and children and destroyed my wall. They knew nothing about this dog. I am out of the money I spent to adopt this dog I would never adopt from them again
This shelter cannot afford to make good on any promises or contracts, and will not honor vouchers to spay/neuter, etc. Once you drive away with your new best friend, good luck.
We were fortunate to make it through the vetting process and adopt a new mom dog who had been brought here with a number of other dogs from South Carolina. We were told she was cat friendly (we have 2 inside cats).
As it turns out, our dog is so afraid of cats that she either cowers if she thinks they're near, or, as my deep scars will attest, attacks them. We have spent hundreds of dollars for training, an interior gate and portal system to give the pets a modicum of freedom, and numerous training & psychological items to allay her fears. We now have two scared cats as well!
The foster keeper gave us a certificate for a heartworm test and spay. She emphasized that the org did not pay for, nor support, the pre-op testing. In fact, the foster mom stressed what an unnecessary money grab pre-op testing is.
The dog couldn't be spayed for quite a while post-partum, so we put her in behavior training in the meantime. When we went for her spay at a clinic that accepted their voucher, we did, indeed, pay for the pre-op blood work. It revealed heartworm disease. Through a number of emails, the foster mom and shelter's leader admitted that many of the dogs in this convoy also had heartworms. If you look at the national map of heartworm frequency, South Carolina is the reddest, densest area by far.
The shelter 's leader claimed to have made multiple attempts to call us to discuss the matter, though it is perfectly clear that she never did. Phone records don't lie.
We set out on a thousand-dollar course of treatments, which the shelter's leader also bad-mouthed, claiming the medicine was so cheap and the markups ridiculous, not taking into account everything else that is required for safe administration. She touts her vast knowledge of animal care, yet derides DVM's diagnoses and treatment plans.
In an email she offered a $250 refund against our costs. Four months later and no further replies to our emails, we have nothing to offset the treatment costs, not to mention the discomfort our dog's been through and the constant drama our family endures.
To wit, our dog is now ready to be spayed and the clinic that would otherwise have done the procedure isn't doing business with the shelter due to unpaid bills. Now, keep in mind that our stray adoptee gave birth to 8 puppies who also need to be altered, but this shelter's practices and finances will not prevent most of these 9 dogs from making even more stray or abandoned dogs. Go figure. Our altruistic attempt to save a poor, knocked-up dog who was rumored to be healthy (as opposed to getting a mill dog who's been spayed, free of heartworms, documented or trained to cope with other pets, etc.) is a great dog -- don't get me wrong -- but we're nearing two grand in 9 months in fixit's for a $300 stray.
This is a deceptive, lying runaway outfit that finds beautiful, if sick, dogs, yet cannot make good on their core mission -- in at least 9 cases -- and are actually helping to perpetuate the cycle of unwanted animals.
While we found many organizations out there that are not NFP in search of our dog, we were happy to see that this organization is ethical and excellent to their clients. Paws Chicago sets this as an example and very few smaller rescues follows this. They are abusing the system.
Review from Guidestar
This is a fantastic organization, in existance for 9 years. They guarantee the health of the dog and always respond to their clients. The go above and beyond even if the expense is high, and somehow they manage. Donate to this organization and volunteer for them.