Santa Barbara Humane — Attraction in Goleta

Santa Barbara Humane far exceeded my expectations. I had just lost my cat of 16 years, Nia Grace, and finally mustered up the courage to adopt a new feline friend. I don’t care what anyone says, but adopting an animal is a big deal, it takes commitment and care, patience, and time.

I was quite discouraged with other adoption facilities due to the fast nature of them urging the hastiness of a life-changing decision. I was also discouraged at the lack of humane element when adopting – everything is through websites and pictures and asynchronous communication. What ever happened to the joy in visiting a shelter/facility and “shopping” for your perfect feline friend? Or having time to bond and get a feel for personality? Or even a simple phone call to discuss the animal in question? It was incredibly discouraging that adopting has morphed into the same competitiveness of the housing market.

However, upon emailing SB Humane, I immediately received a phone call from the Santa Maria Campus. The staff was happy to discuss the kittens in questions and valued my requests in wanting some additional pictures and videos of the kittens before scheduling a meet and greet. They respectfully honored the first come first serve protocol in holding the kitten until my scheduled meet and greet that day. Upon arriving to the facility, I was escorting into a kitten den and was given time to bond, play, and hold the kittens. I was instantly enamored and so appreciative that I could allow myself to adopt without any pressure from the facility. Needless to say, I adopted 2 kittens instead of 1. The staff including Matt Chan, so graciously answered all my questions, gave me product recommendations for kitten care, and shared some valuable tips in kitten training. I was even able to meet the employee that rescued my kittens, which made the experience so much more rewarding. The facility also has a pet center to purchase necessities, if need be, so you are not leaving “unprepared”. Upon check-out, I was given all necessary documents on both kittens, helpful flyers, suggested Vets in the area, 2 bags of kitten food, all within a nice SB Humane canvas bag – further reassurance that this was one of the best decisions I could have made. This facility was family – I can’t say enough good things.

So I leave it at this, if you are looking to adopt – go through SB Humane. The Santa Maria Campus holds a special place in my heart as I sit here and play with my newest family members – Neytiri and Nala. I am forever indebt to everyone that helped me make what seemed like a very difficult and stressed decision, an easy...

Would give them zero stars. I had an appointment today 9/25/2024 this morning and waited as you would normally do here. I have been taking my two dogs here, the first for 7 years and the other for 4 years. My four year old was due for her Rabies vaccine and a blonde female with glasses checked-in my dog everything was going well here. She went in and got a leash and muzzle because I had listed my dog gets anxious. She left me there for 40 minutes and helped other clients who had come in for similar appointments and I only saw that they were getting in and out while I stood there. When she was done and I was the only one there, she went to go get my dog and when I told her I didn't want to put the muzzle on because my dog has never used that before. She told me that if I didn't put the muzzle on then she could not vaccinate my dog. She said that she couldn't risk getting bit by my dog and catch rabies and then she told me that the only thing I could do was bring her in when she was sedated. When I told her why I had to sedate my dog when she had never in her 4 years been sedated to get her vaccines. She told me that she would ask her manager, five more minutes passed by. The manager came out told me the same thing the blonde lady told me and she said that my dog was barking and that's a sign of fear and she can't vaccinate that way. My dog likes to bark. Last time I checked, a lot of dogs bark when going to places like these, so this explanation was bogus. She told me that she can't do anything if I don't come back with my dog sedated to get her vaccine. I asked for a refund of the $10 I paid and she told me I would get it but they gave me a sedative which I said I did not want regardless. So I ended up getting $7.60 back and a displeasing experience that I made me feel frustrated and ignored. I don't know why it was so hard for them to simply tell me from the start that they would not do anything and save me the almost hour I lost waiting for a service that I never received.

I will no longer come here to get my pets vaccinations. I would rather pay my pets vet then, experience that negating behavior from those two people again. I don't know what happened to this place, it...

My kiddos and I walked in very excited to possibly adopt a dog or cat and had lots of questions and wanted to be pointed to the right direction as to our needs and best match for a dog and from the moment we walked in we were disregarded. Maybe it would be better for them to schedule appointments if they can’t give a customer their full attention. I waited for about 20 min to talk to someone and when I did I was brushed off and was told to just look at the photos on the wall for their availability and my kids and I did just that! After another 10 or 15 minutes another staff member came up to us and asked if we had gotten help I explained that I was interested in adopting a pet that would be a great fit for our family and the entire time I was asking questions and the staff member was more interested with a puppy that came in and left me mid conversation to go pet a puppy….I was very confused and was left wondering how I would adopt a pet. I followed the staff member thinking she would continue our conversation but after another 10 minutes of playing with the puppy that had walked in I realized that I wasn’t going to get any questions answered as I began to ask my kids to get ready to leave she just turned and said just keep looking online for a dog….I really don’t understand why I was not given much information maybe it was the fact that I had 3 little ones but regardless my kids left the shelter crying as we did not even get a chance to look at the dogs we were interested in and were not given much information on how to start the adoption process. It is sad that the shelter complains about having so many dogs but no one to adopt them and when a family comes in asking questions they did not make an effort to help point us in the right direction. This is not a kid friendly adoption center and I would never recommend families considering wanting a pet to come here. Not sure if it was our race or the amount of children or biased on our financial situation but either way I only saw them interested in helping the typical single older American person if you know what I mean. Which is typical discrimination here in Santa Barbara. Such a sad and...