A desperate plea for pet food posted last month on social media accounts maintained by Animal Welfare League in Chicago Ridge echoed a need that’s being felt at animal shelters across the south suburbs and nation.
“Our shelter feeds more than 500 animals on a daily basis and it is quite costly to feed so many animals,” said Chris Higens, Animal Welfare League’s president. “The majority of the food we use is purchased at a slightly discounted rate, but it still adds up to thousands of dollars.”
Higens said staff have reached out to several dog food companies and pet stores to no avail. The shelter doesn’t have any grants or large donations for food. They need 650 pounds of food daily, plus prescription and specialty foods for animals on a special diet.
So, like other shelters, staff found other ways to solicit help — adding a wish list for food and cleaning supplies to their website, installing a donation box outside the shelter, including information about donations in adoption take-home packages and mentioning the need at offsite adoption events. They’re asking people to bring donations of dry and canned food to their Fur-Palooza Festival on Oct. 13 in their parking lot at 10305 Southwest Highway.
“Any help with food is always appreciated for our homeless animals,” Higens said.
Kathy Wiesner, who directs Rescue Pack, which supplies free food to nonprofit shelters and pet owners in Illinois, including the south suburbs, Indiana, southwest Michigan and Wisconsin, said the situation is as bad as she’s ever seen.
“I would say the need for everyone we serve has exploded, for whatever reason,” said Wiesner. “More and more animals are being surrendered, abandoned, are losing their homes, and I don’t know the reason for that.
“If we help them with pet food and supplies, they can take the money they would have spent and do more medical, education and training.”
Rescue Pack serves about 250 nonprofits, including 75 shelters, 165 rescue organizations, and 10 pet food pantries, as well health fairs with free pet food. The nonprofit, which has a headquarters in Palatine and warehouse in West Chicago, receives pet food from major manufacturers that might otherwise end up in a landfill.
Pet owners are feeling the crunch, too.
“If they need help with food, generally they also need help with other things that go along with caring for an animal,” said Wiesner.
PAWS Tinley Park has a strong donor base for its 65 dogs and 85 cats in the shelter. The pets require about 200 cans of dog food per week and 1,000 cups of dry food, with cats needing a similar amount.
“We are 100% nonprofit, so every dollar that comes in via donations goes right back to the animals,” said Bradley Rahm, a longtime volunteer. “We survive pretty much on donations only — no government grants at all.”
If the Tinley Park shelter does run short, volunteers post a note asking for donations on social media.
“We’ll (then) have people bring in dog food for us,” said Rahm. “Our customer base is really nice about that.”
NAWS, a no-kill shelter in Mokena with 870 cats (150 in-house and the rest in foster) and 75 dogs, sees a big drop in donations in the summer.
“People are a lot more giving during the winter and holiday months,” said Becca Keller, director of Development and Marketing at NAWS, adding she reaches out by email to their 6,000 supporters and posts notices on Facebook for their 60,000 followers.
But NAWS hit it lucky when TR Miller Heating, Cooling and Plumbing decided to donate tons of pet food. The company added $10 pounds of pet food for every $89 A/C tune-up between April 15 to July 31.
“It’s extremely helpful,” said Keller. “We’ll probably not need to ask for food for a very long time.”
NAWS is also having a fundraiser from 6 to 8 p.m. Sept. 8 on its Facebook page, with the charity Jordan’s Way, a group that travels the country to raise awareness and funds for shelters through social media events. It will be the second such fundraising event for NAWS.
“We raised over $20,000 when they visited us two years ago, and hope to raise even more this year,” said NAWS board president Jeannine Huck.
If the event raises $25,000, board member Delonda Belanger promised to get her first tattoo.
At South Suburban Humane Society, in Matteson, there are 71 cats and 59 dogs who need to be fed several times daily, in addition to 219 pets in foster care, who need food and supplies. They go through 80 pounds of dry dog food and 30 pounds of dry cat food daily, in addition to 30-45 cans of wet food.
“As you can imagine, over 3,000 pounds of pet food a month costs quite a pretty penny,” said Mika Carten, Community Outreach director. “There are also plenty of times where we will take in more pets than we initially anticipated, which will only make that number go higher.
“The number of lost pets is continuing to rise, so there is always a huge need … that is why pet food donations, or donations of any kind mean so much to us.”
They reach out through their website, social media, adoption promotions, word-of-mouth, and with wish lists.
“We would not exist without the help and support of our community,” Carten said. “It means the world to us and to the pets in our care.”
Janice Neumann is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
