Fox Lake facility history Many of our supporters have been asking about the closure of the Fox Lake facility! The Fox Lake Facility was built, by three great volunteers, two of which were retired Palatine High School Teachers as part of the Building Class which educates children, with positive reinforcement in regards to the construction process!
The permit for the facility was given by Bill Hart, the zoning comissioner at the time. He was a kind and supportive individual and we thank him deeply, as our hundreds of animals that we have saved and placed for two years! The facility build out, plumbing, electric and building materials cost the volunteers 35000+, and it was accomplished with no financial support from outside sources. The build out, was according to the specifications given by the Village Code and it passed with no issues. The total cost in negative for the facility was 85000 with no financial support whatsoever. The rent for the facility was 2100+, and on the average of 5000/month. When having a physical facility, which we would never recommend to anyone unless you are politically well connected, leaves room for opportunities for anyone to gain political power at the expense of animals.
Having a facility, we discovered may attract many opportunities, possibly political opportunities, which can be negative or positive. An example would be that one, of a political person wanting to create publicity and using a rescue/shelter as an avenue. As a result the liability, of saving animals can be great! We have had these instances, however fortunatelly those people moved on, and now they can use their own avenues to create publicity.
FPALR, built the facility in order to house animals on a temporary basis, by running the adoption facility with set adoption hours. This facility also enabled us to have the animals transported to our facility, in order for the volunteers to evaluate, medicate under the supervision of our partner vet clinics, and rehabilitate the needy animals that come from depressed areas. We are very experienced individuals, in this area, with training from our vet clinics, and our adoption rates are excellent as well as the return rates, thru the hard work of our volunteers which spend endless hours in caring for the animals we rescue.
These animals, come into our rescue, emaciated, neglected, with lack of food and water for days, infested with fleas and ticks. It is our volunteers which immediately care for them! as well as our veterinary clinics which we thank deeply, giving us discounts for the veterinary services they provide.
Running a shelter, does not only require hard work and dedication, it also requires much needed funds. We have not been able to receive any Grants for any of our hard work. At the same time we have discovered the politics and corruption, in running a shelter. Since we are not into politics, for the sake of saving animals, we have decided just to close immediately! We could have published many opportunities which have occured, however we have decided not to do so at this time. This does not mean that we will not in the future! Our volunteers, have been humilliated, harassed, and looked upon in a demeaning way for rescueing animals. During harsh winter days, they were laughed at, when they were out working hard, attending to the animals. Our rescue animals, were looked upon as leftovers! Our hard work, money and effort was looked upon with envy and pitty from some officials and neighboring businesses. This prohibited our adoption center to run to it's full capacity, as we had to minimize the adoption shows which we could have had, and the ability to run our center as planned.
Once upon a time, we used to have our primary adoptions at a big pet supply store in Schaumburg. Since we were competing with another rescue, in that store, we have again chosen to stay out of their way, and cordially give our space! We have continued our mission and have stayed strong.
We work well with many organizations, and have an excellent track record. We go the extra step, in training, medical care , grooming and we only rescue animals from controlled animal control facilities and thru licensed facilities. Our primary goal is to adopt out excellent companions and to have a low return rate.
We have provided volunteer hours for children, from Lake Zurich Highschool, Wauconda Highschool and provided a safe haven for socialization for many animals and individuals, by making them better people in our society by interracting with our animals. The volunteers, which are still part of the rescue are very accomplished individuals educationally, career wise and family wise! and the best people walking on this earth. We do not need high numbers of volunteers, we need genuine volunteers, and we have them.
Due to the unacceptance of a rescue in the near by vicinity, we have encountered many behaviours which lack the ethical attitude which we all strive to live by! We have made the choice of leaving everything behind, including the vast amount of money we have invested, which makes us as individuals genuine fullfilled as strong human beings! We will be working with many communities in helping them achieve the much needed education, in regards to best practice animal welfare, eliminating the political aspects.
In one instance in Fox Lake we had a visit from an inspector, and her clear words in front of children volunteers, and another community individual were "you should have not taken these animals and they should have been euthanized". It turns out that these beautiful animals, have since been adopted, making many families happy. Little did we know that we were competing with many puppy stores in the area, which were bringing in tax money, while our adotption center was NFP and 501c3 and only bringing in saved lives, and many happy moments for many families.
Our focus in the future is to rescue animals and also provide healthcare funds for our partner animal shelters. We will be announcing the programs we will offer in the next few months.
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