No Kill-Shelter News

Introduction

Pet shelters have a problem: they aren’t run well. If you point out any issues, they will attack you and do not take any criticism constructively at all even if it’s intended to be. I recently have been on the search for a new dog and wanted to rescue this time since there is constantly news about shelters being overcrowded. So I went on adoptapet.com and found a dog in a shelter about an hour and a half from me and submitted an application and inquiry about this dog.

I waited a week and sent a follow up and called the multiple times to check if the dog was available and see if I could come by for a meet and greet; the phone number listed was not answered and did not have an answering machine option. I then got annoyed and left a google review and even that they took several days to respond to. When they responded, they were annoyed and pointed me back to their policy for adoption on their website (nothing to do with the issues I voiced), said that they are run by volunteers, and told me that based on my negative review I should not be approved for adoption anyway.

Shelter Issues

Given just how horrible my interaction with them was, I dug a little deeper and found a number of issues with this organization:

1. Out of date information – the dog I was interested in adopting had apparently already been adopted but continues to be listed on the company website and adoptapet.com weeks later.
2. Lack of responsiveness – between not having a functional phone and not responding to messages sent through Adopt A Pet, this rescue does not have open lines of communication to people interested in adopting. You must be a local and be willing to drop by and be turned away if they don’t have time for you.
3. Legal and operational issues – this shelter, which is a no kill-shelter, recently accidentally allowed humane services to come in and brutally euthanize 11 dogs and move 22 more dogs to an unknown location and an unknown fate. This was documented by some of the shelter staff as traumatizing and the dogs were placed in plastic bags to finish killing them. This was also illegal since there was not a veterinarian on site administering or supervising the euthanasia. This is gross and unacceptable.
4. Other complaints – the google reviews and BBB complaints list many of the items I noted: dogs not being kept in healthy condition, and no level of responsiveness from shelter staff.

Concluding Thoughts

This is just a very confusing and disappointing way to run a shelter. Saying that it is run by volunteers is not an excuse for any of this – get more volunteers or organize them better. Someone is being paid as they show salaries and wages expense on their tax return which they list on their website. That person, who I assume is the director, should be fired and replaced with someone who is going to take charge of the situation. There is pretty much an unlimited number of people who are willing to volunteer with dogs so the issues is more with how they are deployed.

The mismanagement of this shelter, and this is just one of many mismanaged shelters, is directly in conflict with their mission of caring for and adopting out pets. I told them in my review that they are the reason people go to breeders. They create barriers to adoption just by not being a functional shelter and frankly use the excuse of being volunteers for why they are rude and unresponsive. These shelters should be ashamed.