PACT Humane Society

Located in the back of Petco. There is a large area set up for cats who are rescued from animal control facilities in the Chicago area. Animals are very well cared for. Many volunteers foster cats and dogs, walk the dogs, and care for all the animals. The staff is professional and diligent.

To preface this review, I HIGHLY encourage people to adopt from an animal shelter. Over a million dogs and cats are euthanized each year in the US. Many of the adoptable animals are puppies and kittens, and both mixed breeds and purebred animals can be found. There are a ton of rescue groups in the Chicago area that foster animals, so you should be able to find out how the dog/​cat interacts in a house, if it is housetrained, good with kids/​other dogs/​other cats, etc. Petfinder or Petango make it extremely easy to search for animals, and most rescue groups will keep an eye out for you if you prefer a certain breed/​type of animal. There shouldn’t be any excuses! Please adopt.
Obviously I appreciate the work that PACT does. However, I think the organization is very poorly run. Is it because no one is really in charge? Or there are too many volunteers and they are poorly trained? Considering the amount of volunteers they claim to have (over 100, per their website), it seems that the animals are neglected.
I adopted my Coonhound from PACT. PACT had pulled her from a kill shelter in southern Illinois and placed her in one of their foster homes. I guess the foster home was unwilling to work with her, and after a month or two she was subsequently returned to live at the Petco. She lived at the Petco for a couple months before I adopted her. She’s a difficult dog. I get why someone wouldn’t want her. What I DON’T understand is that I saw her intake photos, as well as other photos on the website, and she was sick the entire time. Miserable, actually. I can tell because I know how she is. I understand that it’s easy to pass around illnesses in shelters. I’m not blaming them for that. Most of the animals I’ve adopted in the past have been sick. It’s something that, as a potential adopter, you should expect. HOWEVER, I also expect that if the dog regularly sneezes, coughs, and has watery eyes, that someone at the rescue organization should have recognized that the dog is sick. And that at some point over two months, or five months, a veterinarian should take a look at her. OR… perhaps… when I was adopting her, and she wouldn’t stop sneezing and coughing, that one of the five volunteers would admit that she MIGHT be sick. I asked them several times, and they said «she’s fine.» Well, I took her to a vet the next day, and he stressed that she was very obviously sick and that her illness should have been addressed. After lots of love and antibiotics, she was fine. But I would have appreciated if they would have taken care of her to begin with. Maybe she wouldn’t have had to go through all that suffering.
Not surprisingly, PACT is a much more relaxed rescue organization. They don’t do house visits. They may have called one of the references I put on my adoption application. But other than that, I paid my money, filled out an application, and took my dog home in about an hour. I talked to about five volunteers that day. One man, who appeared to be in charge, felt it was necessary to tell me about 8 times not to adopt my dog. He told me that no one at PACT really liked her, and tried to convince me to adopt another dog. I informed him that I’ve always had hounds, some that were severely abused with extensive behavioral problems, and he still told me not to adopt the dog. He also felt it was necessary to give me a Dogs 101 class before leaving. Yes, I get it. I’ve already have a dog. But if he felt it was necessary to do this with everyone, he could have talked TO me, not THROUGH me. Also, if I’m prepared to work with the dog, a breed that I’m familiar with, and I’ve had a ton of experience dealing with behavioral issues, why try to convince me to adopt another dog? It was very frustrating.
After taking my dog home, I received a follow up call a couple days later from someone from PACT. I informed them that the dog was severely ill and should have been attended to earlier. I also noted that the dog had significant behavioral issues and asked if PACT or the foster home had been doing anything that had worked. She had (and still does) a great deal of anxiety and paced constantly. It took months to housetrain her. I would walk her in the morning, my husband would take her for a 5 mile run at lunch, we would go to dog park for two hours at night, and then maybe for another 3 mile walk at night. And she would still pace. She also paces after we go 15 miles. PACT called back with no suggestions, again just asking how she was. I was honest, saying she had a lot to work on, and asked again if they could speak with the foster home to see if they knew of anything that had worked with her. Again, they called back with no suggestions. Whoever called me knew nothing about dogs, unfortunately.
Ultimately, I ended up with a wonderful dog. She’s gone through a ton of training (obedience, and scent, which she loves) and still has a few issues. But I absolutely love her.

PACT humane society doesn’t really have a good location, in my honest opinion. It was located in the areas local Petco. And in that area there isn’t much space so when I went there where about three large dogs at the time I met.

I have been volunteering at PACT Humane Society for almost a year now. PACT is located inside the Petco store in Bloomingdale. If you’re looking to volunteer with animals, this is a great place to do it. What’s great about PACT is that it’s a no-​kill, not-​for-​profit humane society and educational organization that is all volunteer run. PACT has been around for over 15 years, and several hundred animal adoptions are made each year through this organization. There are many volunteer opportunities to choose from including:
1. Animal care providers (dogs and/​or cats)
2. Adoption Counselors
3. Management Team Members
4. Program Coordinators
5. Webmasters
6. Humane educators and advisors
The entire staff and volunteers are great to work with. I volunteer with dogs and help with daily dog care. It’s a great way to interact and take care of several breeds with different backgrounds and temperaments, and it’s a very rewarding and educational experience. There is also a cat room at PACT and you can volunteer with cats too. You can find more about volunteering here:
PACT stands for People and Animals in Community Together, and it’s a great place for dogs and cats who don’t have a home. You can foster a pet, adopt a pet, and/​or volunteer at PACT. You can also make a donation as well. Volunteers I work with range in age from teenagers to seniors, and it’s a great community. Every volunteer is willing to go the extra mile, and everyone is attentive when it comes to all dog and cat needs.
I really look forward to my volunteer shifts at PACT. What’s great is that you can pick your hours and don’t have to stick to a strict schedule every week, as long as you tell the staff your hours and volunteer schedule ahead of time. It’s a great way to get involved and give back to the community, but it’s really fun hanging out with all the great animals and people. If you’re thinking about volunteering with animals, PACT is definitely the place you need to check out! I highly recommend it.