State Issues 'Cease And Desist' Order Against Former AWL Director

CHICAGO RIDGE, IL -- After an almost year-long investigation into allegations of animal abuse and negligence at Animal Welfare League in Chicago Ridge, the former executive director and board president has been ordered by the state to stop practicing veterinary medicine without a license.

The Illinois Department of Finance and Professional Regulation filed an enforcement action in November against Linda Estrada, who had headed the shelter and board since the early 1990s. The state agency responsible for monitoring the state’s financial institutions and overseeing professional licenses, ordered Estrada to “cease and desist the unlicensed practice of veterinary medicine in the state of Illinois based on her unlicensed practice while employed at Animal Welfare League.”

Although AWL had passed inspections by the Illinois Department of Agriculture, employees and volunteers went to IDFPR with allegations of animal neglect and deteriorating physical conditions at the animal shelter. The IDFPR launched an investigation in late 2017.

The enforcement action comes nine months after Estrada resigned her post and was dropped from AWL’s board of directors. AWL remains under investigation by IDFPR and the DEA, whose agents raided the animal shelter last year. According to insiders present during the raid, agents were searching for expired euthanasia drugs and medical logs after $17,000 worth of tramadol went missing, a highly addictive opioid-based drug used to treat severe pain.

Animal Welfare League has been under scrutiny since after Patch obtained exclusive photographs and videos showing filthy conditions inside shelter of sick and dying dogs bleeding out in cages, piles of rodent droppings in isolation rooms, and sick dogs lying in their own feces or bleeding out in cages.

Employees and volunteers, both past and current, say they were required to sign non-disclosure agreements under threat of legal action. Those who violated the agreement by posting pictures or discussing conditions inside the shelter on social media, were terminated or banned from volunteering.

“I think that the main reason that nobody speaks up is because of the non-disclosure agreements that everyone had to sign,” a former employee wrote to Patch. “When I left, I also had to sign an agreement that I would not look for any type of reimbursement from them for any medical issues or mental anguish that may have been caused by my employment with them.”

The former employee further detailed Estrada’s alleged attempts to treat a dog that came in with a head injury, although at first Estrada thought debris was stuck to the dog’s head “she started picking it off.”

“Turns out, it was actually the dog's skull sticking out, and she picked at it so much that she started pulling brain matter out. She then stitched it up poorly, it got badly infected and the dog ended up dying,” the former employee said.

Estrada is also alleged to have performed several c-sections on certain shelter dogs. Despite having no formal training or a license to practice veterinary medicine, Estrada would remove the puppies from the mother, break the sac and hand them off to an assistant. The former employee who had “absolutely no medical experience,” was routinely asked to assist Estrada in performing many medical procedures that typically would require a license from the state, such as assisting in cesarean births, as well as administering vaccinations, medications and IVs.

“I would be willing to testify under oath in court if it comes down to it,” the former employee said.

Animal Welfare League decided last year not to renew its contract with Cook County as county’s animal holding facility. The Chicago Ridge animal shelter often found itself portrayed as the hero in news media stories when mistreated animals were seized from other shelters, such as Dazzle’s Painted Pastures Animal Rescue in Tinley Park, and the Dolton Animal Hospital, where the municipality had a contract with the animal hospital to take in the village's lost and stray pets. Former employees and volunteers maintain that the rescued animals continued to languish at AWL without medical care or ended up being euthanized.

"It was like they were so happy to be somewhere that they knew they'd be safe," Estrada said of the Dolton Animal Hospital rescue in 2014. "Once we brought out the food and blankets their tails started wagging. It broke our hearts."

Advocates from Reform AWL Chicago Ridge are planning to gather in front of the animal shelter at 10305 Southwest Highway, Chicago Ridge, at 6 p.m. Friday, Jan. 25 for a peaceful protest and candlelight vigil on the group’s one-year anniversary.

~ Linda Estrada with Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart during a 2014 press conference announcing charges against the Dolton Animal Hospital veterinarian. | Photo by Lorraine Swanson