Dogs Shown Sick, Bleeding Inside Animal Shelter: Photos

CHICAGO RIDGE, IL -- Since news broke out of an undetermined canine respiratory illness that has shut down Animal Welfare League in Chicago Ridge, Patch has obtained exclusive photographs and video showing unkempt conditions of dog-holding areas, piles of rodent droppings in isolation rooms and sick dogs lying in their own feces or bleeding out in cages, all of which were taken within the past several months. Sources familiar with the animal shelter claim this is a regular occurrence at the Animal Welfare League. The photos are said to be taken by insiders at the shelter. The Illinois Department of Agriculture has confirmed that a former volunteer has filed a complaint and that an investigation is underway.

On Saturday, the animal shelter announced that it was “proactively” suspending dog adoptions and intakes due to a respiratory illness that had begun showing up in the shelter in early December. Cat adoptions have also been suspended and the entire shelter is on a self-imposed quarantine, according to shelter director Linda Estrada, who has told some news media that the dogs are sick from dog flu.

Terri Crotty, founder of Wags 2 Wishes Rescue Group in Plainfield, disputes that the dogs are sick from dog flu. Crotty's rescue group frequently pulls sick dogs from AWL and fosters them until they are well enough to be put up for adoption. Crotty said her group has pulled about 30 dogs out of AWL over the past year.

“The news has reported a flu outbreak. Animal Welfare League does not have dog flu,” Crotty added, who has also filed a complaint with the Illinois Department of Finance and Professional Regulation.

Crotty pulled an ill, 7-month-old shepherd mix named Aflac — named after the duck in the insurance commercials because of his web-shaped feet — because she suspected that his feet were deformed from being kept in a cage for three months. Seeing the suffering animal, who had been at the shelter since August 2017, Crotty’s rescue group pulled the dog out at the end of October so he could get nursed back to health so he could eventually be put up for adoption. They were told the dog had kennel cough.

Aflac died in her arms on Nov. 5, 2017.

“There have been hundreds of dogs that have laid there sick just like Aflac, who are bleeding out because the medicines they are being given are shutting down their organs.” Crotty alleges. “The day I picked him up he was connected to an IV and could barely breathe. No dog should be treated for a month straight for kennel cough, which usually resolves itself after a few weeks without meds. The problem was that he had pneumonia. It got so bad that his lung collapsed.”

Crotty had Aflac’s body brought to the University of Illinois College of Medicine for an advanced necropsy.

“We wanted to see why all these dogs at AWL were getting sick,” she said.

Aflac’s medical records from AWL show the he came to shelter in August with Parvo disease. In September, the dog was treated for kennel cough through the end of October. According to the University of Illinois necropsy report, E. coli and mycoplasma were found in Aflac’s lungs, a highly contagious bacteria spread by coughing and sneezing that can turn into pneumonia. In humans, mycooplasma-caused pneumonia is often called walking pneumonia.

All other tests conducted on Aflac post-mortem, including canine distemper virus, herpes virus and parainfluenza virus, were negative.

“The place there is overrun with rat and mice droppings. Mice will eat dogs’ food that are lying half dead in cages,” Crotty claims. “At least Aflac died in my arms and not in there, but what about all the other Aflacs at Animal Welfare League that don’t make it out.”

Sources claim that Animal Welfare League has twice this week performed mass euthanasia of dogs at the shelter. Embattled shelter director Linda Estrada denies that they have been killing dogs en masse. She told Patch that the shelter passed an extensive inspection by the Illinois Department of Agriculture on Wednesday.

“He went over us with a fine tooth comb,” Estrada said. “He inspected everywhere.”

Estrada said that the shelter experienced an outbreak of kennel cough in early December, which she says is normal. When the dogs weren’t responding to antibiotics, the cough turned into pneumonia. The shelter took a throat and nasal culture on one of the dogs, which came back as an advanced mycoplasma bacterial infection. After putting the shelter on voluntary quarantine, AWL vets have performed 35 nasal and throat cultures to determine why “healthy, chunky dogs” are getting sick and dying. Lab results are expected back on Friday.

She also said it was possible that the shelter had a “few mice.”

“We have Orkin come in once a month,” she said. “We take all preventative measures, I’m not going to lie to you. Rats — absolutely not. I’d be terrified.”

Estrada took us on a tour of the shelter. One room with about 40 kennels was filled with barking pit bulls, which appeared healthy and robust. Another room of similar size was empty. Estrada said the kennels were being cleaned. Smaller dogs were stacked in cages in the hallway. Inside the sick room, dogs stricken with the respiratory illness lay in cages tethered to IVs.

Estrada also showed us the morgue. About a half dozen dogs were bagged up and ready to picked up by a pet crematory service. Estrada said they were animals that owners brought into the clinic to be euthanized. Four dogs in larger black bags, she said, were brought in as “DOAs” by various police departments.

“We did not euthanize 25 dogs," Estrada said. "We would never do that. I would have people’s heads on a platter if they did. You have to love animals to work here.”

Photos: 1) a dog lays in a pool of its own blood 2) mice feces in isolation rooms at Animal Welfare League 3) and 4) Sick animals stored in a garage at AWL with sewage backup and a pigeon coop is located. 5) A dog eats next to puddle of urine. 6) Mice droppings at AWL. | Photos provided by sources familiar with AWL.