Fresno Animal Center — Local services in Fresno

I fostered a few litters of kittens in 2024 before I stopped. I would always make an appointment with the cat foster coordinator to pick up a litter of kittens, but it would take anywhere better 30-50 mins just to pick them up because something would be missing; either paperwork was missing or staff weren’t informed about the kittens going to foster by the cat foster coordinator, the latter leaving me waiting for 2 hrs. While I was waiting for that 2 hrs, I was told by the staff that she always tells the staff what’s going on and that she never mentioned any kittens going out to foster to anyone that day.

Whenever I would pick up supplies, I would wait in the lobby for over 30 minutes, where even people that were after me got helped sooner.

Not only that, but I would always receive a 12 hr notice on when the kittens were going to rescue. I love having the kittens get better chances of being adopted out and am more than happy to bring them back to the shelter to do that, however getting a consistent 12 hr notice leaves me to believe that the coordinator knew that they were going to rescue sooner and chose to wait to inform me.

The last group I had also one kitten with health issues. I used the online resource they have, however I don’t know if any notes the vets make online are actually kept on record for the shelter to look over and review. It would be so much more useful if the shelter had access to the notes the vet wrote to online to streamline the process of care. Afterwards, I contacted the cat foster coordinator and then eventually went In person to get help because she stopped responding for almost a week.

Overall, the amount of time it took to pick up each foster group even after making an appointment with the cat foster coordinator and finding out there was always something missing, long wait times to get supplies, and just disregard for my time, tells me I wasn’t valued as a foster that provided my home, time, and care to the kittens. I don’t know if fostering is still like that now, but if you are interested in cat fostering, I would highly recommend finding a different place that...

The most absolutely disorganized animal shelter I've ever been to, bar none! With unknowledgeable staff and rude, unsympathetic, massive lack of empathy receptionists, just turn away. I foster to adopted a dog who got lost in the system, who was sick and was still adopted out to me even though he wasn't supposed to be. 3 days later, the puppy started coughing, I went back to get the puppy medicine and they distributed the wrong amount of medicine. I had to go back AGAIN and get the puppy more medicine and then they tell me that the puppy can't be vaxxed because he was sick.That would have been nice to know when I talked to staff the day before and after I took that poor puppy, in my car all over town for other appointments I had and I could have just left him at home. The puppy wasn't a good fit for our home, I cried all the way to the shelter to return him as much as I didn't want to so my emotions were everywhere (I was sad, heartbroken, frustrated, doubtful, upset, etc.) and the first thing the receptionist says to me is "you don't have to be so aggressive with me ma'am". I wasn't being aggressive towards her, I was upset at the entire situation because I didn't want to return the puppy but I didn't have a choice to take him back Instead of saying something like, "I'm so sorry the puppy didn't work out, let's take care of you." Or how about, "I'm sure this is frustrating and sad for you, let's get you going." Nope. I told her that I was just crying all the way over to the shelter and a little sympathy would have gone a long way. She sarcastically said, "okay ma'am." as I was leaving. Don't adopt from here, they will make your life a personal nightmare. Save...

I took in a sickly kitten & a sick cat that I found on my first visit back in June. They told me to put the cat back where I found it & that they had no room for the kitten & that they would euthanize her unless they could find a foster for her that night or I could sign up to foster her which I did. Went back 2 weeks later so they could evaluate her. Another woman was there with 4 healthy kittens she had found under an abandoned car. Once again they told her to put them back where she found them. She couldn't foster them as she has a dog that likely would have killed them. When I went back for the second evaluation for my foster kitten I had found 3 more kittens just before the 4th of July & my daughter had found 3 kittens in her neighborhood. They refused to put them in my foster care & just gave me a list of cat rescues to contact but with kitten season in full swing they are all full. They did take back my foster kitten who is part flame point Siamese with gorgeous blue eyes.

To portray themselves as low kill they won't take in sickly cats & because they built a small cat adoption room they are dumping the stray cat problem back on the rescues & the general public.

Update: Their latest excuse for not excepting cats is they have to be sick or injured & meet some other criteria. They are operating like a privately funded rescue but their 21 million dollar facility & staff is funded thru our tax dollars. They are suppose to be the open animal shelter for Fresno so people like myself who find homeless animals have a place...