League for Animal Welfare — Local services in Batavia Township

We had a great experience with them when we adopted our rescue last year before the new adoption coordinator took over so we responded to their plea to foster a dog and 8 2-week old puppies (yes, 9 dogs total) with health issues. One of the puppies died in their care because it "didn't thrive". Before we agreed to foster, we asked if we would be able to adopt some of the fosters if we choose to and they said absolutely. In our care, the puppies gained at least 5x their initial size. All 9 dogs finished all their medication regimens for cough, diarrhea, and worms. We had to create a spreadsheet for the different meds. Some meds were only given to some of the pups, other meds needed to be refrigerated, the momma was on various meds, etc. We also documented each puppy's weight daily as requested. The smallest of the litter wouldn't eat with the pack and would just sleep in the corner during meal time so I would separate him to hand-feed him many times in the first few weeks to make sure he thrived because he gained the least weight compared to the others. Midway through fostering, when we formally told them in writing that we wanted to adopt 3 of the fosters, they told us in writing (I have proof!) that was great and that after we return the fosters, we would only have to come in for adoption pickup, sign paperwork and make the payment but after we returned the fosters, our adoption for multiple puppies were denied; we were to pick 1 for adoption. They come up with all kinds of excuses which should've been brought to our attention BEFORE we agreed to foster. We felt MANIPULATED. We had told the 3 pups that we would come back for them and if you're a pet lover, you would understand how important that kind of promise is. The adoption coordinator was so rude and treated us like we were wanting a free dog. Like really?? We spent hundreds of our own hard-earned money for the 9 dogs and not to mention our time and heart into it! They only gave us minimal supplies one time when we picked up the fosters which was fine because we really wanted to help the dogs, so no, we did not want a free puppy. We wanted what we were PROMISED before we agreed to foster. When we picked up our puppy the day after her spay (we paid our $350 dues in full), she wasn't even given any antibiotics so that was really alarming for us since we're not new pet owners (our vet was very concerned when we told him). After we talked to the manager, she apologized for the "miscommunication" but that's about it. For someone who says they want to help the animals, that was a very poor way of showing it and a horrible way of treating the foster partners. If you go there, just be prepared for some very rude staff, inconsistent messages and a possible big disappointment. Don't get your hopes up despite of...

I hate giving a shelter that i’m sure does a lot of good a negative review, however the experience I had with them is one that was very frustrating and left me in tears. My BF and i found a little white kitten behind Chip In and Marco’s Pizza and he was obviously out there for a while, very skinny and dirty. I brought this kitten to the shelter and they checked for a microchip, which he did have. I filled out a form with all of my info on it and then left. the next day i called to see if the owners came to get him, they didn’t but i didn’t want to step on anyone’s toes so i gave them some more time because if the owners didn’t come back for him i wanted to adopt him myself. so i call 4 days after i dropped him off, still the owners never came and i told the woman i talked to that i would be interested in adopting him. she told me he still needed to get his shots and get neutered before he was ready for adoption. she told me on the phone that they would give me a call when he was available. i was so excited bc i really did care about this little guy but i wasn’t sure how long that would take bc i’ve never adopted from a shelter before so i waited. i waited two weeks and thought i should just call them bc it seemed like he should probably be ready by now. when i called the woman on the phone told me there was no record of me or my phone calls in their system when i explained to her the situation. and honestly she seemed very annoyed by me even calling, didn’t seem to even believe what i was saying or wasn’t listening and was pushing me off the phone and gave me another woman’s email, told me to email her bc she wasn’t in that day and then literally ended the call… i emailed the woman and she got back the next day telling me that they never reach out to people to let them know when an animal is available and they tell them to check the website to see if they’re available… so.. why someone told me that i don’t know. she also informed me the cat was already adopted.. i’m happy the cat has a home of course but i had already bought food and a litter box for him.. i was so excited and that quickly turned into disappointment. if they told me to check the website i wouldn’t been checking every. single. day. this experience left me very upset and angry. can someone please explain to me why this happened? why was i lied to and then basically not believed when i explained everything? and why was i not taken seriously by the woman who i talked to on...

I found my two forever furmembers to add to our family. They are a wonderful addition and the League made it so easy for us to adopt our two cats Sultana and Khalisa. We already are spoiling them with so much love and they are warming up to their new home! The employees are amazing and I would highly recommend adopting an animal from here.

Now editing my review — sadly after volunteering here and putting in a lot of my own time, money, and effort to many of the animals that came from this shelter I’m sad to say I’ll no longer be volunteering here. If you are interested in adopting more than 4 cats don’t even bother, they immediately think you are a hoarder and a crazy cat person. I literally have an animal care ethics background and have worked with the study of animals in philosophy and biology through many coops and labs in my career and real life experience. I would never get any animal that I can’t financially provide for or I think wouldn’t do well with my other cats. I was interested in adopting another cat with my CH foster because I most definitely had the means too and just wanted to add a mamas boy to my all female crew (I sat on the decision for adopting two of my girls for 3 months and always had convos with my vets before considering adding more. I fell in love with this senior lady and there was a scared baby girl who needed out of the shelter. I was just being a good human and using my financial resources to give these cats a home) — but I was immediately interrogated about my personal finances in the lobby in public in front of my 5 year old daughter. I left feeling embarrassed and ashamed because all I wanted to do was adopt a cat. I looked at other one star reviews and should have looked at them before fostering or adopting here. I would recommend looking at the other one Star reviews. You’ll see a pattern.

I will say — the front desk adoption counselors, vet staff, cleaning staff, volunteers; and animals are the ONLY good thing about this shelter. And it breaks my heart to give this review, but they really need to approach asking families how they can financially care for cats in a better manner instead of presupposing they can’t or they don’t know what they’re...