PAWS Chicago

Paula Fasseas, founder of PAWS Chicago and an executive in a Chicago-based corporation, read a news article in May 1997 about the extent of Chicago's pet overpopulation problem and euthanasia at local shelters. She recruited other business leaders to join her in touring local animal shelters. Collectively, they saw firsthand the magnitude of Chicago's pet overpopulation problem. The group felt that in a city as cultural and resourceful as Chicago, this was a tragic situation that could be changed.

PAWS Chicago was founded to raise awareness about homeless animals in shelters by creating the Angels with Tails events on Michigan Avenue/Oak Street and Armitage Avenue, and later in Chicagoland's finest malls. These creative, highly visible events have helped thousands of wonderful dogs and cats find new homes. In addition, millions of people are now more aware of the plight of pet homelessness.

In the summer of 1998, PAWS Chicago opened an Adoption Center at 2337 North Clark Street in Lincoln Park. This facility was donated by North Community Bank. The PAWS Chicago Cat Adoption Center is open seven days a week and is completely staffed and managed by volunteers. Over 300 cats find new homes each year through the Adoption Center. Our Center has also become a Lincoln Park institution; it is a popular place for people who enjoy stopping by to visit the cats, or draw on our volunteers' expertise for questions about their felines.

While adoptions are an important part of PAWS Chicago's mission, the real solution to ending pet overpopulation is targeted, low-cost spay/neuter, which works to end the continuously increasing supply of unwanted pets. Just one surgery can prevent hundreds of homeless pets in just two years.

In 2001, the PAWS Chicago Lurie Family Spay/Neuter Clinic opened its doors as the first high-volume, low-cost clinic targeting underserved communities, where the majority of Chicago’s unwanted pets originate. Located in the Little Village neighborhood, this state-of-the-art clinic is one of only a few in the nation.

Surgeries are priced at $50 (free for those receiving public assistance). Each surgery includes a basic health exam and free vaccinations. The Clinic is able to perform 10,000 to 12,000 surgeries per year, which will quadruple the number of low-cost spay/neuter procedures being performed in Chicago.

Using the Clinic as a home base, PAWS Chicago is currently building a grassroots humane education program, concentrating on Chicago's inner city populations. Like all PAWS programs, volunteers will be utilized--they will be trained to network in their communities to educate and spread the word about humane treatment of animals.

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