Apple Valley Municipal Animal Shelter — Local services in Apple Valley

Just wanted to update the rude workers name at this shelter is Cynthia, Not Cecilia. The head person spoke to my daughter, they are ALL RUDE!!!, She told my daughter yes we got your Mom's call. They dont care... today date... 3-4-17 post earlier this week If I could give a minus five star instead of a one, I would. We had went to the shelter on Saturday, and found a cat we wanted to adopt. She wasn't available until Tues. So we came back to adopt her on Tuesday, and we asked to see her in a room and play with her just to see how she interacted with us. Cecilia a worker came with us. Yes I got her name for a reason. She seemed frustrated and uninterested in helping us from the beginning. So we tried to play and see how the cat Stormie was going to be, we had a toy. Cecilia said can I show you another cat? We were like, no we pretty much know we are picking her. She said ok then are we done? I said yes. (Based off of a review I read prior, I said, if we want her, when we come to get her there will be no problem right, she will be ours correct? With the ugliest most condescending face Cecilia said, what do you mean, you want her or not, we dont hold them. I snapped back and said no that is NOT what I mean. No one can get her out from us , like adopt her before we get her, correct, I read that on your reviews, I dont want that to happen. She said no. So we followed her out and headed up front and she said do you have the info and I said yes, her name and age etc. Again with the ugly look on her face she said you need to get her #. This lady was the rudest person ever. I was shocked, because she works with the public daily. So she got her info and we went to the front and started the adoption process, my daughter completed the paper work and all I could think of was we will get the cat and be done with this lady. NOPE, she comes out and said that cats been adopted. My daughters face was so hurt. I was like WOW, are you f*king kidding me, after all the rude behavior she put us through that was the very reason I asked my question, and this has happen before to others. Unreal. We left her behind, and got a kitty at the rescue up the street. I said as we were leaving and Cecilia was standing there, this is the crap I was asking about when you were being RUDE. This place is a joke, a lot of the dogs were skinny when we seen them on that prior Saturday, and I heard later they do animal lottery. I called back to complain to someone higher up. No call back, they could care less. If anyone can do something about these rude and unfair practices, do it. I had no luck and had read these things happen but still tried. They need to be turned in. Reported. I feel bad for the animals there. DO...

New Notes: we adopted a bonded pair of elderly Maltese dogs around July (they were set to be euthanized and we got them on the last day). AV Shelter set the spay up for "Dorothy" in November. Now AV shelter is threatening to issue citations and court dates for not spaying the animal in which AV shelter set the appointment up. Excuse me? YOU arranged the appointments for spay and now you want to issue citations because of YOUR appointments?!

Old issue: Friday January 4th: arrived with a friend to view dogs. Seen a bulldog, I was interested in adopting. Staff told me to return the next day, Saturday the 5th, to do a meet and greet plus fill out an application. A staff member originally told me to come in on Monday (I learned Saturday this pound is closed on Mondays, see next paragraph).

Saturday January 5th: bring my family to do a meet and greet with the bulldog since they will be around the dog. Goes well. Fill out adoption application and go to turn it in. Staff member tells me that I must bring it with me on Tuesday morning at 9am. I explain that a staff member told me to come in Monday and I would like it clarified. Staff member says they are closed Monday, Tuesday 9am is when I need to arrive with my application for the drawing. I was given my application back. I asked again if I need to be put on a list and I was told no, come back Tuesday at 9am.

Tuesday January 8th: I arrive at 8:40am, second person at the door. When I get to the desk I handed them my application. I was told by staff I was too late this was supposed to be completed on Saturday. The exact staff member that told me this was sitting to the right of me. I said no, pointed to staff member and said I was told to come in this morning. That staff member seemed a little surprised, took my application, reviewed it and said sorry I'm too late. This infuriated me. Rather than causing a big scene, I left.

I was kicked out of the lottery process by staff members. I don't know if someone was purposely dwindling the pool or if someone was just being negligent in their job. This was extremely careless and heart breaking to be removed from the process entirely. I am glad this dog was adopted and I hope he's well cared for. However, I do not like how the staff handled this matter... 3 days of wrong information and turning...

Hello, we adopted our beautiful Fox (Golden Retriever mix) here a couple of weeks ago. When meeting him, he transformed from a scared and traumatized pup into the cuddly and affectionate soul within minutes being with me and my daughter. Once home I found he had worms. So on day 2 at home we went to the vet for an overal check up and dewormer. Check up went well, vet stated he's underfed, gave dewormer and that he needed lots of love&food. The next few days it was utter bliss, nothing but lots of cuddles, kisses and being attached to the hip. He had to warm up to my husband slowly and was scared of men in general during our walks. This was sad to see. But my husband was able to show him, he could trust him. Unfortunately after day 7 of being home, he got increasingly sick by the hour. Called the vet and planned to come in first thing in the morning. When morning hit, it was clear beautiful Fox was suffering. Rushed to the vet and he got hospitalized immediately. During the Xrays it showed it was a mess 😔 His abdominal where very abnormal, pheunomia.. also showed the tip bone of his P was broken which probably answered why he was scared of men 🥺 in the few hours he was there he's gotten seizure after seizure... it was Distemper. Absolutely gut wrenching. We tried to treat the symptoms as much as possible for the rest of the day but it became clear it was only getting worse and Fox became unresponsive. He passed over the rainbow bridge with his head in my arms. We walked out in tears with a bill of $4000 and no dog. Now I know there are succes stories from this shelter but this wasn't one of them. I informed the shelter about this, just so they are aware that distemper is currently still in their kennel but I got no reply/response. That felt a bit heartless. I am all for adopting, I just wish there were more funds to give a proper health assessment of the dogs. Because this was traumatic for our entire family, you would think twice coming to this place eventhough the dogs here deserve it.

This was for Fox. He was loved for the short time he...