New Name. New Logo. Same Mission.

You may be wondering what brought on these changes.  After all, we are not changing our mission but we are continuing to improve and expand our many programs and services.  We have been working hard over the last several years to expand our Spay/Neuter Program, which led us to acquire the new Bucktown Branch location to build a new clinic there.  We also have been working with City of Chicago Animal Care and Control and other open admission shelters to transfer cats out of their facilities and we hope to meet our goal of adopting out 600 cats this year.  We have also played a pivotal role in expanding Trap-Neuter-Return in our community with our Feral Friends Program, and we are working to make Chicago a no-kill city acting as the lead agency for the Adoption component of the Maddies’ Fund Community Grant.

These efforts reflect our continued success in implementing innovative solutions to animal welfare issues, and it reaffirms the progress Tree House has made since our founding in 1971, with a mission to rescue and place sick, injured, abused and neglected stray and feral cats, which to this day represents the largest number of animals being killed at animal shelters across the country. 

In an effort to better illustrate our mission ad steadfast leadership role in the animal welfare community, we wanted to update and simplify the appearance of the logo, while also creating a more sophisticated design that depicts our maturity as an organization. and our continued mission to focus on helping stray and feral cats.  

In the process, we took the opportunity to modify our formal name.  Since the word “foundation” implies that we are a grant-making organization, we decided that we should place more emphasis on our humane mission in our name.  We will still refer to ourselves as Tree House when speaking casually, but we think that Tree House Humane Society better describes our programs, services, and overall philosophy. We believe that working for the humane treatment of animals is an important part of a larger paradigm in which all life is valued and that it takes whole communities of people to address many of our world’s problems including the stray and feral cat overpopulation problem.  By working tirelessly to improve the lives of sick, injured and abused stray cats and advocating on behalf of all homeless and mistreated animals, we hope to contribute to a more humane society and a better world.  We want our new name to reflect that.  We hope you like our new name and logo.

 

Mission Statement

Tree House Humane Society is a humane organization that promotes the inherent value of every animal and strives to educate the public about proper and responsible animal care, with a focus on the care and placement of stray cats with special physical and emotional needs.

Organization's History

Tree House Humane Society was founded in 1971, when a group of families in the Chicagoland area united to form an organized network of animal welfare agents. The network grew rapidly, and by 1975 the founders legally incorporated as a non-profit, 501(c)(3) organization, and purchased the property at 1212 West Carmen Avenue . A national audience was developed through educational brochures and pamphlets that helped to explain dog and cat behavior. Tree House gained a reputation for offering valuable advice on animal healthcare, lost pets, and household dangers.

In 1989, we expanded the physical structure of the facility, almost doubling the size of the shelter to continually accept and care for more stray cats. In 2000, we remodeled our attic to make a Socialization Room for feral cats, and we were also named First Place winners of the Humane Association Award offered by the Chicago Veterinary Medicine Association. Tree House Humane Society is the largest cageless, no-kill shelter for injured, sick and abandoned cats in the Chicagoland area. Since its founding Tree House has found homes for more than 14,000 “residents.” Tree House provides a safe haven for feral, stray, abused, neglected, and/or critically injured felines. Additionally, we performed over 500 spays and neuters, and we are on a pace to double that number in this year.

Use the links at your left to learn more about the many programs Tree House offers in order to help best serve the most cats.

Tree House is a 501(c)(3) non-profit charity, and all donations are fully tax-deductible. We do not accept any federal or state funding. Almost all of our support comes from concerned and involved individuals like you.

Tree House is a proud member of the Chicago Area Shelter Alliance (CASA) and is the lead agency for the Maddie's Fund Community Grant. To see our 2007 shelter data and to learn more about CASA and Maddie's Fund, please click here.