Brevard Humane Society — Local services in Cocoa

The worst experience of my life with family pets. The business model to get animals donated, market them, fix them tag them, and track for life is not a business model that shows the animals' best interests. It's greed control driven and honestly sickening.

I didn't even know they existed until a friend made a mess by adopting without knowing if she could care for a puppy. She is clearly an irresponsible 23 year old with an infant, and they still adopted her a hound mix on the spot (some "vetting" they did). The girl, who in no way should've been allowed to adopt an animal changed her mind and stupidly called the county to pick him up. I was able to step in and adopt him for my family after he was returned.

I have an 11 yr old dog that wanted nothing to dog with the pup, but he loved to play with other dogs so we thought another pup to grow with would be good for him. We went back, they had 2 boxer mix brothers. Beautiful dogs and beautiful personalities from what we could see from the window.

I paid 10 each dog so we could have a priority adopter tag, but this doesn't go toward the adoption fee. They already met my family with the hound mix so they waived them being at the meet and greet, which is irrelevant anyway bc there isn't much you can tell about a dog from meeting them in a park.

My husband and I met the dogs and were indecisive. They were pushy and said we have to agree then or we lose the priority. First, I took one and then came back for the other after talking with my husband. The process was really quick I was very excited as well and didn't read through everything, which the lady was aware of bc I signed in seconds. No highlighted areas, no pointing out that I am marrying the shelter for the next 10-12 years. Just paid the 150 ea. dog, congrats, flip the card and take care.

We got them home, bathed them bc they had dried stool all over them and set them up with crates and started our life with them. The next day, one of the brothers was very aggressive toward my old dog whenever he saw her. His behavior displays abused pup. He is extremely submissive to people and aggressive to dogs. So we were thinking that if we can't correct it, bc sometimes you can't, depending on what happened to them... that we would rehome just that guy.

I posted 1 post on a rehoming fb group to see if folks would be interested just incase, with no intent yet bc we were just getting started. The shelter posed as a potential buyer then called and left multiple messages that they had proof that I was trying to sell the dogs and they were coming to my house with police to reclaim them.

Needless to say, I was confused. The lady was yelling at me on the phone and asking me why would I do that, I explained, but she didn't like my answer and insisted on arguing with me. We waited for them and police to show up, just to tell them I didn't do anything wrong and to go away.

The contract binds you to them for the life of the dog. They kept saying "bring us back our dogs" and per their contract (which should be illegal) they hold all the rights to the animal without any liability. We don't adopt animals from them we just care for them at our homes while holding all of the financial and legal responsibilities for them without rights to them and they get to reclaim them whenever they want based on how they feel.

However much I understand they deal with the general public and they have to be careful, they aren't being careful. They are being negligent by adopting to anyone with an ID, controlling through a tracking chip (although they ask if you want them chipped on the way out as if they're not already) and then flex the law while it is not even a criminal offense to rehome an animal. I called everywhere and asked everyone. No one challenges them, so they get away with this behavior of selling animals and reclaiming them to sell again if you breach the contract and they find out.

There is no trial period or even partial refund. They are theives. Please don't give them your animals or...

I will NEVER EVER adopt here again!! I truly think these people are dishonest about the health of the animals there.

I adopted a 3 month old kitten on Mother's day 2024. The very next day, she became ill. She was slobbering, sneezing, and had a feline upper respiratory infection. The slobbering was due to mouth ulcers! She was treated for this infection, and made a full recovery. However, my vet said said she came home from the shelter with it since she became ill the next day. I made the step of calling the shelter and letting them know so they could notify the people whom adopted the other 5 cats.

Next, she got sick in October. Again, it was a feline upper respiratory illness. Again, I paid a vet bill to get her well. She made a full recovery, but I found it odd that a cat so young was getting ill so much.

The next time she became ill, I once again took her to the vet. This time, she had a new and disturbing symptom. She had a severe cough. Her nose was running. As usual, she refused food. She stayed curled into a ball on my bed. I could see the misery in her little eyes. Once again, we made the trip to the vet. She gave her an antibiotic shot like she usually did, only this time, it didn't work. I babied her for a week to no avail. I found her, eventually, hiding under a bed late one Sunday night. She was burning up. I rushed her to the emergency vet hospital at 11 pm at night. After xrays, blood work, and an exam, I found out she had a temperature of 104.1. Her lungs were cloudy, and she had a severe upper AND lower respiratory infection. I had oral antibiotics and vitamins for her, and also a 600 dollar vet bill!!

I'd like to say she's recovered and fine, but at 5 weeks and counting, she's still on antibiotics. The 3rd round. As long as she stays on them, she seems fine. When we go off, the symptoms come back.

I finally took the step of paying over 200 dollars to have a thorough respiratory panel done on her. She tested positive for feline calicivirus. She will carry this virus FOREVER. It is highly contagious respiratory virus, and runs rampant in shelters. I've already invested over 2,000 in my kitty in 9 months. I'm starting her on a vitamin regime to help boost her immune system. 35 dollars. I'm looking at a lifetime of vet bills and my cat suffering.

I called the humane society, just to see if I could get some answers, like did any of my kitty's litter mates test positive for this virus? What is their policy of quarentining ill cats? The cat room I was taken into was small and cats were running everywhere. Most weren't even in cages!

The lady that answered the phone didn't even know what calicivirus was. I was put on hold multiple times. Then, someone came back on the line and I was told that no one from my cats litter had called to say their kitten was sick. They had NO calicivirus in the shelter anywhere, nor had they ever. They had no sick cats at this time. I found this very hard to believe. They have animals coming from everywhere and none of them have been exposed to this highly contagious virus. Then, I was told that every cat coming in was tested for it. I find that hard to believe also because that was not documented on my cat's adoption papers. Also, the testing done was very expensive.

It makes me sad that my cat is going to have a lifetime of flare ups that make her very sick. And I'm going to have a lifetime of expensive vet bills to pay.

It would have been nice to have had them take responsibility for this situation. Also, as I read through the reviews of this place, one person took her cats to be neutered there, and all of them came home with upper respiratory illnesses. She said her cats had never been sick a day in their life before going to this place.

The moral to this story is. ADOPT YOUR PET FROM SOMEWHERE ELSE. These people just don't care.

I'm including a photo of her sick. And how...

Please dont pay for dogs from this place and allow it to get shut down. The Reason being is these people claim to be animal lovers and doing this for the right cause but their not this place is just trying to make money doesnt care about animals like they claim they do. So here's the story, i found a dog on 520(W King St) and i bring it to cocoa's humane society to see if it has a microchip because i am a animal lover and rescue all types of animals rescued rats, unwanted snakes, cats, rescued my dog, rescued leopard geckos, and trantulas. So no luck with the mircochip so i decided before i make the owner pay to get their dog back ill take her back home and hope that i can post on FB and brevards lost pets and find her home. Unfortanately, i had no hits its been several days ive had this dog and with my full house i literally can not take care of her the way she needs. Broke my heart to even bring her to the pound in the first place. Then, i get there and bring this girl in and i get stopped at the door and someone rudely tells me i have two dogs right here go back outside. Ok. so i did. The lady with these dogs goes outside now i go to go inside and im stopped at the door and this woman ask me how they can help me so i begin to explain the situation and the lady pretty much blows me off saying they cant take the dog beause they are getting a "Shipment of 30 dogs the next day". First off the place cant even hold 30 dogs. little does this lady know ive been here probably 50 times ive donated probably a thousand dollars worth of dog food to them. So being rejected and aggrevated i put this girl back in the car and return inside and ask to sign in and go into the back where she then accuses me of wanting to look at other dogs when "your trying to surrender your dog", WOOOOO hold the front door, my 10 animals have all been vetted have there shots mirco chips and everything and this employee have the audacity to tell me im trying to surrender my animals KNOWING i was there less then a week prior trying to find this animals home, The reason i wanted to go into the back was to see how many animals they had in the back which then i would return the following day to see if her statement about these 30 dogs coming the next day was true. She then Refuses to let me into the back to see the other animals and how many of them there were, and, if they were really full so here i am writing this review and just know my fiancee will be going in there either tmrw or the next day so we can see just how truthful they were being. In conclusion, don't buy any animals from a shelter that picks and chooses animals based on wheither or not they can sell them for the price they want, your better off going to the SPCA in Titusville or the Brevard County animal services(South Brevard Humane Society). This Shelter will no longer receive any donations or any other support from me or my family in the future and i genuinely hope this shelter closes down so another one hopefully full of a more caring...