Wood County Humane Society — Local services in Bowling Green

1.5 Years ago my family visited the shelter with the intent of finding a new canis lupis falimiaris member of our family. The staff was eager to assist, and suggested that we consider a 3-4 year old, recent refugee from Puerto Rico, who was displaced as a result of the terrible hurricane which visited destruction to his home island. The staff gave the impression that this dog was removed from his home family, but was a loyal and domesticated animal, well situated for assimilation into a Midwestern suburban lifestyle. In fact, the dog was not housebroken, nor socialized, and was extremely aggressive towards all non-human creatures. My family was so invested in this animal, that we expended a tremendous amount of capital both financial and emotional in an attempt to domesticate and train this animal, to the point where we spent a month actually wearing the dog to housebreak him via the "umbilical training" methodology. And while the dog was most kind to the human members of his family, his unbridled aggression towards all the other creatures of his neighborhood made his position in our household untenable. Fast forward 1.5 years after our adoption, and after his unbridled and uncontrollable aggression almost resulted in the deaths of several pets in our neighborhood, out of desperation we called the shelter to seek their insights and suggestions and to ask that they take him back or find other, more suitable accommodations for the dog. They refused, stating that a dog as aggressive as him could not be let back into their shelter. When we mentioned that we wondered if euthanasia was the best course of action given the situation, they agreed that it might be. In hindsight, this shelter accepted a street-dog from a Caribbean Island, passed it off an domesticated animal displaced by natural disaster, and when the truth of the matter could not be avoided, decided to absolve themselves of all responsibility of the matter. We have tried for 1.5 years to make this work for my family, and the end result is devastation for my children, the loss of thousands of dollars for my family, and terrorization of my neighborhood at the hands of a street-dog, that should have never been allowed to be adopted. Worst still, when this reality came to light, the shelter offered no assistance or guidance other affirm the fact that they washed their hands of this tragedy and to agree that euthanasia might be the best course of action. Should you adopt an animal from this shelter, be sure to return the animal at the very first sign of issue, as they do not disclose all information, nor do their due diligence...

I had adopted Nova 3 weeks ago. I was fostering to adopt him. Unfortunately he was sick (with what was obviously a respiratory infection) so I was unable to adopt him right away. I made the mistake of letting this place handle it while I was fostering him back to health. The "vet" that they have there cleared him and said he was ready to be adopted fully and that whatever was remaining of his illness was minor and would clear up naturally. So I trusted the "vets" word of mouth. That was my next mistake. Because here I am a few weeks later preparing to bury 4 week old Nova because he died from a SEVERE resperitory infection that was not treated correctly. When I called to inform that he had passed away and complained about the inaccurate diagnosis, I was then informed that the "vet" isn't an actual vet. They basically have no one there who can make an educated diagnosis. On top of that, they pretty much told me it was my responsibility and that it's my problem and not there's. Once Nova passed I took him to my vet and no later than 10 minutes into the examination, he declared the cause of death a severe infection. I will never do business with this...

We came here to look at cats. Some staff were pleasant and professional, while some others not so much. One young lady was very rough to the animals, and came off very know-it-all and overall rude. We looked at a cat and were pressured into adopting her, the worker having lied about them not doing 24-hour holds so we could think on it more. Long story short, we wound up returning the cat, told we could do such right away no questions asked but that also seemed to be a lie. Immediately it was the 20 questions game, not accepting our answer and prying more and more, and we apparently were supposed to call and schedule an appointment to take her back? This wouldn't have been a problem if we were told. All in all a decent place, the animals seemed very happy (outside of obvious stress from being locked in kennels) but some staff members seem to be better...