(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — A Portage Park woman who’s rescued abandoned and abused animals over the past five decades says she’s never seen things as bad as they are now, with so many people abandoning pets they adopted during the pandemic.
“I feel that now is worse than it’s been since I’ve been doing rescue. The phone rings between 25 to 50 times a day, non-stop. Through the hours of the night,” says Gloria Lissner, the director of Famous Fido Rescue.
She said so many people are deserting their cats and dogs as the pandemic wanes.
Lissner has a house in Chicago — an old Victorian house — but her life is at the shelter and adoption center she founded.
“I don’t go home. I’m here 24 hours a day. I haven’t been home for eight years, to my house. It sounds crazy, but I can’t leave the building.My husband stays here.”
Lissner says it costs about $30,000 a month to operate the shelter.
She’s having an event this weekend — “Celebration of Life” — to try to raise some money.
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