Humane Rescue Alliance & Medical Center

Reviews 4

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S Apple

Very disappointing. I had better hopes for this facility especially since their webcams are online endorsed by Animal Planet. As several others said, the receptionist is rude. I dont know if the receptionist is the same person as the lady that answers the phone in the adoptions, but the young person who handles phones in adoptions is named Sarah and is NOT helpful in the least. Shes rude and doesnt have a clue about any of the animals there. Ive been in other facilities where they had a lot more animals and the staff knew about the animals they claim to care for. This place does not. I would also like to point out that Ive witnessed behavior on the kitten cam from the cleaning crew that is less than acceptable. For instance, a very fat woman with short black hair (she happens to be black) is a regular cleaner and is more interested it seems in her headphones than the animals. She wears headphones (listening to music??) and when she cleans the kennel it is pitiful. Ive seen her wrap up a kitten toy in the blanket liner to be washed (not paying attention to removing the toy first) and when she goes to clean the kitten kennel, she pours close to half a gallon of some kind of cleaner (bleach maybe?) in one area of the kennel, fails to spread it evenly around the floor with a mop, and then right over the top of the bleach or whatever cleaning fluid she uses, she pours water from a large watering can and just pours it over the same area where she poured the bleach or other cleaning fluid, again, not evenly distributing any of this throughout the rest of the floor space. Ive witnessed other behavior from several cleaning crew on these webcams and its appalling the way they clean them. Theyve often replaced water in the middle of the room along with food bowls, rather than placing them near walls, out of the way so that the animals wont dump their water as theyre playing. This has happened frequently from the different cleaning crew. Other people have seen this on the kitten cam for instance and have made comments about the kittens wanting water when theyve dumped it while playing because someone didnt take any interest or care in the placement of their bowls. Ive done animal rescue and volunteer work throughout my life and Id really like to know where you get your cleaning crew and just what kind of training they receive. Its almost like theyre doing community service hours because they dont take a strong interest if hardly any, in the work theyre doing and why. It is for these animals. Please do better for these animals. They are having a rough enough start in life as it is. Hire people that actually take an interest in the care and well being of them, including the cleaning of their kennels/space, placement of their bowls out of the way of play activity, and staff that actually take an interest in the animals you have for adoption when speaking with them either by phone or in person. Thank you

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Paulette Paglia

I am updating my review from 5 stars to 3 stars because of their new appointment system. I guess it started when WARL and The Humane Society merged? It is very strange and feels disorganized. It is now nearly impossible to schedule an appointment in a timely manner. It is extremely confusing and very difficult to call. The repetitive phone messages when trying to contact the medical center are unnecessary and redundant. Why not create an online appointment system? Wouldnt that make much more sense and be much more time efficient than the current system? On a more positive note. Diane is wonderful. She placed us on a wait list and immediately called us when there was a cancellation. We appreciate her professionalism, kindness and dedication to animals. However there must be a more sensible and streamlined way to schedule doctors visits than this? Original 5 Star Review: We adopted our adorable ginger kitty last year from WARL. My family and I were impressed by the modern facility - everything is new, clean and state-of-the-art. The volunteer in the feline section was super nice and so sweet and thoughtful. Administrators are also really nice and caring. The veterinarian clinic is a teaching hospital. Weve been extremely satisfied with the students, doctors and vet assistants. Our 1 criticism is that its very difficult to contact WARL by phone. They rarely answer or return voice mail messages. However, when caring for our elderly diabetic cat - Dr. R was very kind making herself available to us via email. It was extremely helpful and we really appreciated her willingness to communicate by email. Adoption for cats, dogs and sometimes other pets like bunnies. They have special events, affordable sliding scale for services, you can volunteer too - check out their web page. Terrific organization. Were so grateful theyre close by and even more thankful for all the animals theyve comforted, healed, and placed in loving forever homes.

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Brittany O

We went to adopt a cat on the weekend after New Years, which was very busy at the shelter. We walked in ready to take a cat home that day, and while the staff seemed surprised by that, they were very kind and helpful. The shelter sends you off with plenty of information about how to care for your pet if youre a new pet-parent, and the volunteers had plenty of personal advice as well. The only two cons I had were: 1. I asked the woman at the front desk about our contract, as it was taking much longer than we were told it would take and I wanted to make sure we had not been forgotten. She was VERY rude to me. I work in customer service and the way she spoke to me off the bat is not the way you treat customers, especially considering my question was not ridiculous and I asked politely. 2. Once we did get our paperwork, the woman said, "so as you know, youre cat was treated for a respiratory infection"- well, no, no one told us that. They thought he might still have the infection, and the complementary 30-day insurance you receive from the shelter (which is a nice bonus) specifically states that they will not cover illnesses or conditions previously treated or noted by the shelter. I ended up paying out-of-pocket for medicine for our cat almost right away after adopting him. So just a heads up, if you are on a tight beginning budget with your new pet, make sure to ask about any medical conditions the pet has been dealing with. Other than those two cons, it is a great shelter. Everyone except for that front-desk volunteer was VERY nice, the cat room was very clean, and as I mentioned you get 30-day complementary insurance, plus a flyer for a free initial visit at a variety of local vets. If I were to adopt another pet anytime soon, I would go back to WARL.

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Christina Seronello

We have had the worst experience here. We have two small children, so we have specific requirements. We have checked online for information, then called ahead and asked questions about the dogs that seemed to meet those requirements (ensuring that they were available to meet and would be held for us), then brought our children (a 30 minute drive) to meet them. When we arrived, the dog was in one case in surgery (spay), in one case already adopted, in three different cases limited and not okay with small children. We gave up on calling ahead because it didnt seem to help and just checked the online info. That didnt work either twice the dogs were not okay with small children or already adopted. We spoke with the staff and volunteers. We asked for recommendations. We told them exactly what we were looking for and were shown dogs completely outside of those parameters (its not hard - if I say I want a dog 2 or younger dont show me a 5 year old dog!) Im honestly not sure why we kept trying, but it just seemed like the dogs were treated better here than at other facilities and we wanted to support that. Today, after another unsuccessful trip, someone sat down to "help" us - but instead spent 30 minutes of our time making excuses, equivocating, and telling us not to bring the kids with us to look at dogs. Dont bring our kids to look at a family dog. This was so unhelpful Im done. I dont care if they treat the dogs better - they need to learn to treat the people better.

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