About Us

Mission
Our mission is to promote respect for all animals through education, rescue, sheltering and adoption.
Red Door Animal Shelter is a non-profit, no-kill shelter committed to helping animals in need. Our primary focus is on cats, dogs and rabbits – the three most popular pets in the United States. We also rescue the occasional stray pet duck or backyard chicken.
We provide a cageless environment for the animals, giving them the closest-to-a-home experience that a shelter can provide. While our emphasis is on re-homing the animals through resourceful adoption programs, the shelter does offer permanent residence for those few animals not placed in homes. We created the premiere, extensive rabbit rescue program in the Chicago area and today we remain one of the few no-kill, multi-species shelters in the country that admits rabbits, spays/neuters them, microchips them and adopts them.
Red Door is a 501(c)3 organization; our Federal tax ID number is 36-4248178. We receive no federal, state, county or city funds. We are funded almost exclusively by private donations from the public; sometimes, we receive one or two small grants a year.
History
Red Door was founded in 1988, under the name Chicago Community Humane Center. In the beginning, a small group of licensed foster homes served as the base of the organization. In January, 2000, an adoption center was opened on the Far North side of Chicago, in the West Ridge/Rogers Park neighborhood. And in March, 2000, an innovative rabbit rescue and adoption program was created at the shelter, expanding Red Door’s reach beyond the limits of only cat and dog rescue.
In June, 2002, the shelter’s name was officially changed to Red Door Animal Shelter to better reflect the vision of the organization as a refuge for animals who were homeless or in need of a safe space. In 2003, Red Door expanded its adoption center to 2410 W. Lunt, Chicago, and, in 2010, the shelter expanded again to include a rabbit boarding facility for the public.
Since the Middle Ages, a red door has been the symbol of a safe haven. This is what Red Door Animal Shelter provides for the animals in its care. And in the Chinese art of feng shui, a red door brings luck to those who live behind it. This is what Red Door wants for the animals in its care.

Staff
Mike Malito – Manager
Becky Weber – HareBNB Concierge
Patrick Napier
Michael Nespo
Brian Greetis
Debbie Brockman
Board of Directors
Marcia Coburn – President
Toni Greetis – Vice President
Julie Dorion – Treasurer
Ana Milkovic – Treasurer
Stephanie Madden – Secretary