Seattle Animal Shelter — Attraction in Seattle

I’m grateful that I was able to surrender my beloved cat, Nova, at the last minute after months of trying to rehome her myself. This was a heartbreaking and urgent decision. Sadly, my 5-year-old son developed severe allergies to her, and despite trying various solutions, it became clear that we could no longer keep Nova without risking his health. We kept her longer than we should have because we were determined to find the right place for her. Saying goodbye after eight years was incredibly emotional for all of us.

I was very grateful to learn that Nova was adopted the very next day. While it gave me some comfort knowing she found a new home so quickly, the experience of surrendering her at the shelter was still deeply upsetting.

Unfortunately, our experience at the shelter was marred by the behavior of the staff member, James. From the moment we interacted, he was cold, disengaged, and rushed us through the process. When my son and I tried to say goodbye to Nova, we were met with impatience instead of empathy. My son, who is very sensitive, picked up on this and withdrew from the moment completely. It broke my heart.

I brought in lots of her things including her gently used toys, litter box, cat scratchers, and her favorite snacks—items that were meant to help her feel more secure and comfortable during her transition. I explained that these were things she loved and was familiar with. James took them without acknowledgment and offered no explanation about whether she would be allowed to keep them. I later found out that surrendered animals do not keep personal belongings, but that policy was never communicated to me. I would have appreciated clear, upfront communication about that so I could make my own decisions regarding her belongings.

I also had important medical information to share—Nova had recently seen a vet and started medication. When I tried to explain, I felt ignored and brushed off. I even offered to send in nice photos of Nova to help with adoption efforts, and James ignored that as well. It felt like we didn’t matter—and neither did she.

Days later, I received a follow-up email from James that was both unprofessional and hurtful. Instead of acknowledging my experience or apologizing, he blamed me for his behavior. He stated that I arrived near closing time, implied that I was responsible for making him work overtime for free, and mentioned that they were understaffed. This email felt completely unprofessional, dismissive, and lacking in accountability. Instead of taking responsibility for how he made us feel, he tried to deflect and make me feel guilty for something I wasn’t responsible for. I had contacted the shelter beforehand and was told I could come in at any time during open hours. No one informed me of any cut-off time, and they accepted me when I arrived. To later be blamed for following their instructions was not only unfair, but also emotionally distressing.

This kind of defensive, unempathetic response only added to the pain of an already difficult situation. Nova deserved a compassionate farewell, and we, as a grieving family, deserved respect and empathy. I hope the shelter will reflect on the importance of treating both animals and their owners with kindness, professionalism, and understanding in such...

First I want to say that I'm generally appreciative of the work SAS is doing and I believe everyone there is well intentioned. That being said, my experience with the foster program was less than ideal. We had 2 puppies who were turned over to us and were considering adopting them, but that's a huge decision to make with one day of notice. We figured taking them to the shelter and getting their guidance was a logical first step and when we got there, they seemed very enthusiastic about having us turn them over to the shelter's care (possession) while we decided and they could help with vaccinations and spay/neuter.

I wish we would have waited until we decided to adopt or not, because they began to take a very heavy handed approach to caring for the puppies. First, they are very difficult to get a hold of and when we had a schedule conflict for they puppies spay and neuter surgeries, I contacted them 2 days before and was only able to leave a voicemail that we needed to reschedule. I didn't hear anything back and then they accused us of missing the appointment. Then when we found information from reputable sources that waiting until the puppies are 6 months old to spay/neuter was potentially beneficial to their long term health, they kept saying that logic is different for "shelter animals" versus normal pets and "a lot of people read a lot of things on the internet". This information came from the Journal of the American Veterinary Association and our vet, not Tik Tok like the shelter vet was implying. The main reason for this review is that both the vet and shelter staff repeatedly THREATENED TO SEND ANIMAL CONTROL TO OUR HOUSE if we didn't comply. An escalation that was completely unnecessary, we were very responsive through the entire process.

That's fine that they have a rigid policy to help as many animals as possible, but we definitely wouldn't have brought our puppies to their foster system if they would've been more up front about their approach. I even offered to pay for 2 additional spay/neuters to help even more animals to wait even one more month to spay/neuter our puppies and it became clear than maintaining their authority was a bigger priority for them. After yet another threat to send animal control to our house, we stopped asking questions and went ahead with their spay/neuters at the 3 month mark.

In short, if you come across a dog that you are considering adopting, they take a very heavy handed approach during the foster to adopt program. If you disagree with their approach at all, they will start by saying shelter animals vs regular pets have different medical needs and then immediately escalate to threats of sending animal control to your house if you show any dissent. I would hesitate to enter a dog into the Seattle Animal Shelter's fosteradopt program unless you are 100% certain you...

Short story: we found a sick kitten for whi h we cared for, for 36 hrs. We took him to vet who turned him in to the S.A.S. We mentioned multiple times we wanted him since we found him. After 2 weeks, they gave him to someone else because they dropped the ball. Poor communication, irresponsible and unprofessional.

Long story: We found a sick kitten and brought him to our vet who then transfered the kitten to SAS for a temporary hold in the event the kitten belonged to someone else. We made it known to our vet AND to SAS that we wanted to keep the kitten if he belonged to no one. We were told the hold was 48 hrs. After a week we checked and he was put in foster care. We said we still wanted him and they said yes we see the notes. Another week goes by and still nothing. We checked again and asked why he still hadnt been cleared for adoption. The girl didnt know and went to check. She said he was cleared and not sure why he was still on hold. We said we wanted the kitten. She said she would change the status and all we had to do was fill out the online form and apply. We did just that 20 mins later. The next day we get a response with the foster parent cc'd so we could meet up to arrange adoption. We never heard back from foster parent. We emailed SAS and the foster parent 2 days later and the SAS emails us back stating that the foster parent decided to adopt the kitten. We were furious as we had found him and had checked multiple times and reminding that we wanted to keep him. They said whoever put the notes in, didnt put them in the right place in their system. We asked why we werent offered the opportunity to foster and they said.... "you werent offered that?". Apparently the foster parent put in her application for adoption before us, which i dont understand as we sent it 20 mins after he had been cleared in the system, and since she applied first she got to keep him. Their communication is terrible, their employees aren't even trained how to use their computer system and all they could do was apologize even though they could have just as easily denied her application and given him to us once they found the incorrectly placed documentation stating we found him...