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    ARFhouse Chicago

    3.0 (21 reviews)
    Closed 7:00 am - 7:00 pm

    Services - ARFhouse Chicago

    Animal shelters

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    Ask the Community - ARFhouse Chicago

    Review Highlights - ARFhouse Chicago

    Also, you do not even pick your adopted friend from the Arf House, you pick them up from another location.

    Mentioned in 7 reviews

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    Red Door Animal Shelter

    Red Door Animal Shelter

    (70 reviews)

    West Rogers Park

    I've been volunteering for Red Door for close to 25 years. The staff is very caring and dedicated…read moreto giving the utmost care to the animals. They take in animals that need a lot of vet care and make sure they get it and are healed. I've always seen great care and cleanliness at Red Door. I've adopted "many" rabbits and had a dumped cat under my deck that needed to go somewhere and they took him. This place is totally amazing! I've always been treated with the utmost kindness. I've seen them treat everyone like this. Thank you Red Door for your persistent dedication to saving animals! I've seen guinea pigs, ducks and dogs that go into foster homes. Hand punch and chest thump to YOU!!

    My experience here was as a volunteer. Every time I came in to help, I was made to do common room…read more(the main rabbit and cat room). It was always filthy, many of the fleeces were covered in so much fur that I was worried about the rabbits getting a blockage, water bowls were often fully empty or had literal soap suds in them. The volunteer coordinator suggests you "spot clean" the litter boxes, though often they are so saturated that the pellets they use as litter are disintegrated. It put a bad taste in my mouth that staff was not following the basic "contact time" instructions on the bottles of Rescue when they claimed they wanted to kill bacteria. They kept a sick cat with giardia in a cage first thing when you walked in. He had a sign that said not to touch him, but not what he had. I saw senior staff repeatedly handle iso animals with no gloves. I saw them put iso laundry right into a pile with the other laundry more than once. I found a wet pile of laundry with feces (or litter, according to the literal president -- not sure that's better) stuck to it sitting on top of the dryer. I was written up for making staff "feel bad" about not knowing how to disinfect stuff when they claim to have vet tech experience, and for not being nice enough about the "litter" on the wet pile of laundry. I saw other volunteers regularly mix in BnB laundry with shelter laundry -- with what I would consider a homeopathic amount of bleach. They were not chastised for doing laundry incorrectly. In fact, they were allowed to train me on laundry. I tried to report a possible historical ringworm infection to the staff just so they knew to be mindful to check themselves and animals for sores, but instead got met with bizarre legalistic stuff about how I might as well be suggesting that I could have gotten it from "invisible space aliens" (that's from the president directly). Look at these photos and tell me if you think it's insane to think someone could catch a fungal infection here. I was then banned -- again, the stated, written reason being that I disagree with their veterinary practices and they've been doing this for 26 years blah blah blah. Ok. I'm really worried about how much else has been swept under the rug in 26 years, then. The president was so cruel to me when banning me that I immediately went to urgent care for medical clearance. The NP was grossed out and suspicious when I told him I got yelled at for trying to let them know about a possible exposure. Staff here does nothing but bully people if they trust you enough to let their true colors show. I have personally heard them do it about sexual orientation, weight, and ethnicity -- they even had rabbits with antisemitic names they got from Seinfeld (they are not Jewish themselves). They stood silently by while a senior volunteer made fun of my sexual orientation the first time I met her, even. They do not have a pride flag hanging anywhere. I wish they would change that, because maybe there would be fewer homophobic and transphobic comments. Though everyone here reflexively "punches down" so much due to their low self esteem that it seems they can't even keep track of what they say. Just know that if you have a certain skin tone, everyone here older than 40 with a sensible haircut has an opinion about your hair being "unprofessional" if you do anything but make it as straight as possible. I grew up in a hoarded house, and I have to be honest. That's what this shelter feels like and part of why I wanted to help. They cannot keep up with the animals at all, especially not while running HareBnB. Over the holidays, for maybe 3 full cumulative weeks of the year, volunteers handle everything in the shelter except paperwork and isos. No one is properly trained -- in fact, I trained several people after doing common room only ONE time. But these photos were taken when BnB wasn't busy. This is what their performance looked like when they had one more staff member than they do currently and very few BnB guests. And I heard the president and VP talk about buying more BnB space as a potential for the future! I don't have a rabbit currently, but if I did, I would not trust BnB. I am telling everyone I know with rabbits not to board at BnB. For a while, they were the only game in town, but now you can do better. I had already stopped finding joy in volunteering, because as soon as I would come in, the volunteer coordinator would sit at a computer and pretend to look at spreadsheets. That would devolve into hours of me hearing her talking and laughing while I did what would've been her assigned work. No thanks. As you can see, there's clearly enough to be done that we both needed to be working at the same time. I would love to see them change ownership and find a crew really dedicated to the mission instead of dedicated to doing a bit less than the bare minimum. It seems like this shelter used to be good, but maybe it was just the quirkiness of a bunny shelter.

    Anti-Cruelty - Adoptable female cat, Lotus, posing for a photo as staff prepare the adoption center for the day's visitors.

    Anti-Cruelty

    (464 reviews)

    River North, Near North Side

    Great staff. I had researched cats on line and knew the one I wanted to meet. The staff were great,…read moremeet went well and the adoption process was easy. The huge problem was my cat was starving. When I looked at the records this small cat lost 20% of her body weight in about 3 months. When I got her home and fed her the same food she couldn't keep it down. If I continued with feeding her that food, and I added a good quality canned food, same issue, she wouldn't have last 6 weeks. Luckily a friend gave me a bag of food which I tried. 3 months later she is healthy, great weight and happy. I know they are a huge number of animals to watch but even their vets commented on how skinny she was and how she was losing weight. There is some lack.

    Have been trying to adopt a surrender. We've talked to several people about this and each one…read morepromised to call back. We know the person that surrendered him and this is where he took him. First we were told he had been neutered and it would be a couple of days. They knew we were going to take the dog! Called today, got the run-around, put in hold and then disconnected. Called back and was told the dog was "transferred" but they would not divulge where he was taken. We were told a manager would call back ... didn't happen. Sent an e-mail to Darlene, the president, again no response. How sad. I used to donate a lot of money to this shelter, but stopped because of poor practices. I'll send my money to Felines and Canines. They genuinely care about the animals. Please don't take your dogs there!

    Tree House Humane Society

    Tree House Humane Society

    (224 reviews)

    West Rogers Park

    I am a crazy cat lady. With that said, I always look for excuses to pat more cats I can find. On…read moreone October off-work day, I made a reservation for the "Tree House Humane Society" cafe to see some cats in West Rogers Park. Reservation was done online and no deposit was needed. I paid $10 onsite which included a drink or pastry of my choice and 30 min play time with these feline beauties. When I arrived at the cafe at the scheduled time, the young lady at the cafe informed me there was only one cat in the cafe area but offered me to see some more cats upstairs. Honestly, that was a great trade-off even though she kept apologizing to me for the inconvenience. I was able to enjoy my iced chai and visited some kittens and adult cats in different colonies. Toys and hand sanitizers were provided as we entered and exited each colony. The barista lady introduced me to the cats that were awake for some playtime. Too bad 30 minutes went by way to fast and it was time for me to leave. "Tree House Humane Society" is near the 49B (Western) bus stop. I personally had to take 3 busses from my house to get there, so I do recommend driving since parking should not be too hard to find. There are spots by the building for the patrons I assume.

    What an impressive rescue shelter. It was the first stop on our journey to find a new cat. The Tree…read moreHouse staff was extremely friendly and helpful. After reviewing all of the adoptable felines, we fell in love with a small 1 year old cat that they called Toaster. She is perfect. Because of Bissell's Clear Out The Shelters" special (May 1- May 17) adoption fees were reduced from $115 to $70.

    New Leash On Life - NLOL alumni Olivia happily living it up in Southern California!

    New Leash On Life

    (44 reviews)

    The Loop

    I want to give more than 5 stars for NLOL. Our adoption counselor Jackie is just amazing in terms…read moreof support she provides! She checks in with me about the dog almost everyday provide appropriate support and guidance every time when I was faced with difficulties because the dog was not fully house trained. NLOL offers two week foster period before adoption, which is a wonderful mechanism to get to know the dog before the big commitment. I am still in the middle of the foster period but I am just beyond impressed by the support I was given. It has been an wonderful experience so far. I would recommend NLOL to everyone who is considering adopting a dog!

    If you read nothing else - fostering with New Leash on Life is the best, no-regrets decision I ever…read moremade. If you want more details about how and why I reached this conclusion, read on. I wanted to volunteer with animals, and I was frustrated by the larger organizations extremely limited opportunities and complicated process to volunteer. No, I didn't want to read a 50 page manual and take a test just to clean cages. I wanted to make a big difference in the lives of dogs and help Chicago become a no-kill city. Surely, it couldn't be that hard to find an organization with no red tape and an easy process to volunteer. Enter: New Leash on Life. I found them about 2.5 years ago on this Yelp page with their address listed downtown. I later realized this downtown address was only a PO Box which means NLOL does not have a physical location/adoption center. The implication of this is that all dogs go straight from rescue into foster homes until they find their forever families. This process can take weeks or sometimes months - depending on the dog. Don't let the uncertainty of a timeline deter you - fostering for New Leash is an absolute dream and here are my top three reasons why: 1. Unparalleled people - the nicest and most sincere adoption counselors. They constantly check up on the pups, their progress, and making sure you as a foster have everything you need. Not just via email- typically by text messages which means a quick response time. 2. Super flexible - a. Vacation or trip? No problem! New Leash will work with you and your schedule b. Work long hours? No problem! New Leash can schedule a walker to come during the day 3. And last but not least, THE DOGS. They really know how to pick them. Every dog that I've fostered has been kind hearted, adorable, and an A++ cuddler. Every dog deserves the right to a loving, safe home. Yes fostering is a short term arrangement, but it's a critical piece to helping these pups find their long term forever. Nothing makes me happier than seeing every dog I've fostered thriving in their forever homes. If you're on the fence about fostering, just try it. Anyone who loves dogs can do it and do it successfully. It is an extremely rewarding process and this organization makes it SO easy.

    Be Fido's Friend

    Be Fido's Friend

    (9 reviews)

    Noble Square, Near West Side, West Town

    I absolutely love my dog from Fido but I have to warn people about what goes on there. I adopted a…read morePomeranian and when I visited her twice she was calm and sweet to all people and dogs. 24 hours after adopting her demeanor totally changed and she was aggressive to others and dogs. She is amazing to me but I know now she was definitely drugged before we met because she has severe social anxiety. So just beware! They will drug aggressive dogs so you will be fooled. I love my dog so much and we have been training and her vet gave her trazadone to calm her which works wonders but ethically, this is not a good establishment.

    I love BFF. I was looking to foster for a local rescue and my vet recommended Be Fido's Friend. I…read moream SO glad he did! I filled out a foster application and 'Liked' them on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/BeFidosFriend) One day I saw a photo they posted of this adorable little grey dog in a cage saying they needed someone to volunteer to foster her so they could bail her out of the pound. I eagerly volunteered. I was so excited to pick her up---BFF arranged to have her looked at by a vet, spayed, chipped and vaccinated before I got her. I immediately fell in love with her. It wasn't long before I knew I was never going to be able to give her back. I adopted Poppy back in November from BFF. I am so grateful that they were able to introduce me to this little pup who I've grown to love as if she is my own child. I then fostered another dog through them who I also fell in love with, but this time I was happy to know that she went to a really loving home. BFF is great. They aren't pushy at all like a lot of rescues are. Everyone is so friendly and helpful. They offer you some bonuses when you adopt from them, like lifetime help and support for your dog among other things. They are completely, 100% run by volunteers which is extremely impressive. They recently threw a really fun fundraiser at Bucktown Pub which was a great way to give back to the rescue and all of the lives that they save. I've volunteered with various rescues over the past few years, and I must say Be Fido's Friend is one of the best ones I've had the opportunity to work with. I highly, highly recommend them to anyone who is looking to adopt or give back and help some pups.

    Harmony House For Cats

    Harmony House For Cats

    (39 reviews)

    Avondale

    Found Harmony House on Instagram as my toddler loves cats and unfortunately we are not able to get…read moreone at the moment. So I wanted to take her to a place where she can visit and play with cats and Harmony House was perfect for that. They had a Holiday Bazaar event which was a free event and they had raffles, a bake sale, etc. All proceeds went to helping the cats. What we loved about Harmony house was that it's a cage free shelter for cats. They had several rooms filled with different cats that you can go into and play with them for however long you wanted. It's a great way to get acquainted especially if you're thinking about adopting! There were several cats available, different breeds and all different temperaments. Such an awesome cast shelter to visit! All of the people that worked there were so friendly and informative too! They all knew the names of each kitty and some names were very clever. If you're looking to adopt a cat or thinking about it, I highly suggest checking out Harmony House For Cats!

    What brought me to Harmony House were the humane traps they "rent" out (as long as you bring the…read moretrap back, they never charge you a dime). So I can't comment on the adoption process, but I can speak to the friendliness of the staff/volunteers and the cleanliness of the facility. I was trying to help out a stray cat who'd been coming by and meowing loudly at the door. I was not in a position to adopt another cat, and never once did anyone pressure me to take one of their very cute residents home. Fast-forward to two weeks after picking the trap up, and I'd caught all manner of local wildlife but not the cat. I called to see if I could get a weeklong extension and they cheerfully gave me two more weeks. The building is very clean and modern. Everyone there was very nice when I was picking up and dropping off the trap, if a little harried. I got the impression that they work hard to care for the cats they have and that they sometimes get unscheduled drop-offs (when I showed up to get the trap, the woman who met me at the door looked relieved and said that when the doorbell rang, she was afraid it was "another dump") -- which is sort of heartbreaking. I hope people who have the room and the resources to adopt will check out Harmony House, because their residents certainly deserve a second chance.

    Famous Fido Rescue - Nov. 2023

    Famous Fido Rescue

    (87 reviews)

    Irving Park

    I am truly grateful for coming across Famous Fido because now we have been able to welcome…read morefantastic cats into our family. I can't help but feel as though a lot of these negative reviews are a bit harsh and unfair. I also noticed that the negative reviews did not come from people who actually adopted animals. As someone who adopted 2 excellent cats from Famous Fido, I can not give enough credit for all their work. Animal care is an incredibly serious commitment and one not to be taken lightly. The folks at Famous Fido do ask questions and do not instantly turn over their animals that day. I visited the cats a couple of times before adopting them and was given time to really think it over and prepare our home beforehand. When I went to visit them I was able to enter their space, see how they interact and play. No one hovered over me and told me which cats I should get. I actually appreciated this process because I got to know the animals. It was a bit of a process but they wanted to ensure the animals were going to a good home, which I deeply respect. Being a rescue they take in a lot of animals from rough situations and rehabilitate them and put them in a safe environment. One of the cats we adopted came in with serious health issues and they took care of all of her medical needs, she is now fully recovered to the sweetest cuddliest angel. I could not recommend Famous Fido enough. The cats that we adopted are well adjusted, well-behaved, and comfortable with socializing.Thank you, Famous Fido for helping our little guys be happy and heal before having people adopt them. Just be sure you are ready to be taking on this commitment and the responsibilities of having an animal join your family. Once you are it truly is an absolute joy.

    This business needs to be shut down. It's like a filthy horror show with poor helpless dogs. The…read moresmell is overwhelming and the place is squalor. I was so shaken when we left with the poor dog they had not yet fed by late afternoon. They did not bathe or groom the dog prior to our adoption. Poor thing had burrs and crusty stuff in his fur. He was clearly afraid of them as he would bark and squirm and fight against them trying to shove him in our crate. It was all so upsetting we ran out. Once we were out of there the dog was completely normal. Looking out the car window, snuggling, happy as can be. I cannot stress enough how horrible this place is. I was horrified.

    ARFhouse Chicago - animalshelters - Updated May 2026

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