People who know Hope Shiluk, and there don’t appear to be too many, say the 53-year-old woman who lived in the brick two-flat at 6747 S. Rockwell St. always had a love of animals–ever since she was 9 years old and nursed back to health a broken-legged dove her father had brought home.
But since then, that love apparently became obsessive. On Monday morning, horrified city Animal Control Commission inspectors began to empty the house that had become a feces-clogged urban Noah’s ark–a makeshift zoo that included everything from small birds, a wolf and foxes to hedgehogs, snakes and guinea pigs.
Inspectors were summoned there Sunday night after receiving a report of foul odors and strange creatures. A man who said he had been doing handiwork at a nearby home said he peeked in a window after hearing weird noises, and that he got charged by a baboon.
“We have seen things like this many times,” said Dr. Donna Alexander, the acting director of the city’s Animal Control Commission. “We go into homes every day that are coated with feces.”
But she never before had seen such a variety of creatures.
By Monday evening, officials had impounded a wolf, some foxes, three hedgehogs, two guinea pigs, three or four raccoons, several turtles, a couple of iguanas and several birds, including finches, parakeets and lovebirds. There also were 14 dogs.
And a big, angry baboon that had to be sedated with a tranquilizer bullet after it bit Shiluk during the chaos of the midmorning animal evacuation. It was taken to the Lincoln Park Zoo for testing, before ending up in a cage at the commission shelter.
It was the baboon that drew the most interest because, with the added exception of the raccoons and foxes, it isn’t illegal in Chicago to keep such a menagerie as long as it is done humanely. Shiluk’s shelter, however, was deemed inhumane by officials because she had completely given over the building to the animals–apparently living in a converted attic while the animals roamed freely on the first two floors, Alexander said.
Alexander said Shiluk likely will be ticketed for housing the raccoons, foxes and baboon. She also plans to have Shiluk charged under a city ordinance prohibiting cruelty to animals.
But not, she quickly added, because she wants to punish the animal-loving woman.
“I just want to be able to bring her before a judge, and maybe he can talk some sense into her,” Alexander said. “This is a very nice woman who basically needs a little help.”
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About seven years ago, Alexander went to Shiluk’s house on similar complaints. Then, about four years ago, she returned and found the collection had grown to about 20. Both times, Shiluk agreed to cut back on her pet population.
“This has been accumulating over the years,” said Alexander, who noted that the previous collections were primarily traditional house pets. The exotic creatures found Monday seemed to be a new twist, she said.
The Shiluk saga will continue Tuesday, because inspectors think they saw what looks like an orangutan when they first looked through cracks in the boarded-up windows.