Alderman demands city stop letting rescue groups 'cherry-pick' purebred dogs

Dog-loving Alderman Ray Lopez demanded Monday that Chicago's chronically-troubled Animal Care and Control shelter stop allowing animal rescue organizations to "cherry-pick purebred or premium" animals picked up by city crews.

Lopez said of the 14,000 dogs processed by the city last year, 8,000 were "first-picked" by animal rescue groups given dibs.

"Why do these groups have preferential choice over Chicago residents and taxpayers? There's nothing wrong with rescue groups taking dogs. But if they're only taking specific dogs and leaving us all the dogs nobody wants and can't adopt out, we wind up in unsafe situations, as we've seen this year, where our shelter becomes inundated with leftovers," the alderman said.

"That also leads to why we have so many pit bulls in our Animal Care and Control. All of the other dogs - the Huskies, the German shepherds and whatnot - are cherry-picked out before any one else has a chance to look at them and adopt them."

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