Position & Policies

A Caring Place Humane Society takes an educated stand on certain issues all humane societies face. These positions and policies are as follows:

MANDATORY STERILIZATION:As an organization, we require the spaying and neutering of all animals that go through our organization. This is to ensure that we do not allow more animals to be born who need homes; each and every day throughout the nation, animals are put to sleep because not enough people make a home for them, totaling approximately 5 million annually. One of the simplest solutions to this crisis is mandatory sterilization.

DECLAWING:This humane society will not declaw any cat or kitten and seeks adopters to treat cats similarly. We educate people that declawing is often a surgical amputation of the cat's first knuckle and is considered inhumane by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), and numerous other animal advocacy groups. We provide prospective adopters with educational material on alternate ways to maintain a cat's claws including trimming nails, providing a scratching post, and utilizing aversion training and the use of rewards. Clawed cats and humans can co-exist when training effort and understanding are partnered.

EUTHANASIA: A Caring Place is a no-kill humane society. We do not set time limits on our animals to make room for another animal. We do not euthanize an animal due to old age or costly health care needs. We only consider euthanasia in cases of extreme aggression or extreme poor health. The decision to euthanize is only made after medical and behavioral advice from our veterinary practitioners.

FERAL CATS & KITTENS: Each spring and summer humane societies, animal shelters, and animal control offices are inundated with kittens. Many of these kittens are the offspring of feral cats (also known as stray or wild cats). Sadly, feral cats exist when people abandon their house cat to the outdoors expecting them to fend for themselves, when cats get lost and are never caught, or when born from mothers of the previous circumstances. Most animal control facilities� policies are to trap feral cats and then immediately euthanize the cats. Since we feel that all animals have a right to life we support Trap, Neuter and Return, TNR for short. We support the same methods used by Alley Cat Allies, the national feral cat resource.

KEEPING CATS INDOORS: >There is a lot of debate on whether cats should be kept indoors. Based on the information available, this humane society seeks adopters to keep cats indoors. Most villages, townships, cities, and counties of the major Chicagoland area have a no-roam policy making it illegal to allow cats outdoors unsupervised. Because cats are susceptible to diseases that cannot be fully prevented such as Feline Leukemia Virus and Feline Immunodeficiency Virus, and to human cruelty and indifference, keeping them indoors is the best way to keep cats protected from disease and safe. This humane society instructs adopters and the public that it is in their best interest and their cats to not allow the cat to roam outside unattended.