Humane Society of North Central Florida — Local services in Gainesville

I want to preface that the organization itself is wonderful and they provide amazing care for their animals; my boyfriend and I had overall a great foster experience (for over 6 months) before we decided to adopt her! However, we were left with a bad impression because the associate director approached us after 6 months of taking care of her, threatening legal actions if we did not bring her back within 6 hours.

This took us both by surprise because we had no issue within the 6 months of fostering her and were not contacted before hand with any possible issues. Even that same morning, I had a friendly text conversation with an intern at the humane society asking for pictures and more information to which I had responded to.

When asked why, the associate director claimed that we were "extremely hard" to get a hold of and were to blame for her being unable to be adopted. This was an extremely offensive and wrong accusation towards two people who had taking good care of our dog and genuinely cared for her. Even double checking my emails and phone call log, there was no mention of any adoption meet and greet that we had missed. Any general missed phone call in the past- which if any, happened because we are both college students taking classes- was either followed up by a message from them that usually pertained to her monthly heartworm pill or a call back from us which was met with their voicemail. Reading the other reviews, it is obvious that they have always had an issue with communication and picking up phone calls.

Earlier that year I had even directed potential adopters from their Facebook page to the humane society to set up meet and greets but had not heard from the human society to set up anything with us afterwards. The one meet and greet they had asked us to attend in late December was during Christmas break, where we were understandably with our families and not in town- which the associate director claimed was just an "excuse" of ours later. We even worked with them to reschedule this meet and greet to after break, in January, but were called later to tell us that it had been canceled.

That same day the associate director threatened "legal actions" on no grounds, I called the humane society and spoke directly to the foster coordinator who assured me that neither my boyfriend or I had caused any problem or did anything wrong. The only issue was that she was now the dog who had been there the longest, so they had wanted to market her better to others, which we had even aided in by sending in pictures, posting on Facebook, and sending in a new bio for her.

So overall, this whole thing was just a misunderstanding and possibly miscommunication; but instead of approaching us professionally as an associate director should, he or she made a groupchat on his or her phone with my boyfriend and I and threatened legal action against us with no factual basis and no preface, at all. Any miscommunication was just as much their fault, yet we were treated so disrespectfully for their mistakes. We absolutely love our dog, but feel extremely disrespected by that situation especially because we really...

I had a wonderful relationship with this facility for 8 years. All our cats were fixed here. Dr. Bansel is a great vet I never worried when my kitties were dropped off. Lately, things have shifted. Poor communication, lack of response, and questionable and negligent situations have arisen. I went to their low cost clinic and Dr. EJ came in with a used needle to provide vaccines then used it on 3 of my 5 cats before one yelped and she stated “I guess it finally got too dull” each cat deserved a fresh needle. I reported this to dept of ag it’s extremely negligent. I bring several cats there as a rescue. This same Dr. EJ left deep bloody incisions on my white male kitten. Had the scalpel been sharp you wouldn’t have seen them. I took him back and they just reiterated that he’s fine. I’ve seen enough to know he wasn’t managed well and most males heal in 3 days and it was obvious he was in more pain than the others. I had a rescue kitty get out of my yard by digging under the fence like a dog. My neighbor took her to be scanned and found her chip was issued here. The people at the front desk told my neighbor she was mine gave her my first and last name then told her they’d call me. I posted her lost on nextdoor and went around to look for her and finally found out what happened 4 days later. They called me that day and left a message about billing never telling me they had her. I sent this vm to Sarah G. Proving they never called. Her boyfriend Brett is the one who left the message so I think they covered for each other. Then I show up for one of 3 appts I booked and I’m told they have banned me from using their clinic because I am rude to staff. They knowingly kept my cat and would have adopted her out without telling me. They sent a letter saying I broke their trust, really?!? Her chip wasn’t registered because she is a rescue kitty we were still socializing with hope she can be adopted in future. BUT even so they knew she was mine. I tried to discuss these issues with them the day I found out I was kicked off the books and a very elevated Chelsea B. demanded I leave or she would call police. I was not rude or elevated SHE WAS. They can do wrong by your pet and then blame you for it. She stated since I’ve been going there I’m rude. I asked since 2012? Chelsea responded “well I haven’t been here that long” more like since you have been here there are front desk screw ups and my raising an eyebrow makes you look bad. When Brett Buccholz front desk reception has to leave a 5 star review to bury numerous and recent 1 stars it is not the public it is you, him, or his gf Sarah all monopolizing the front of the house and covering for each...

I dropped off my two cats to get fixed. The process was fine, the entire thing being what I was familiar with from friends who had done the same in Charlotte, where I used to live.

What blew my mind was when I came to pick them up and the first thing out of the woman's mouth was "no one called you?!" This is stellar to hear, by the way, ESPECIALLY when no one called you. So after a series of dramatic pauses (pawses) I find out the cat is fine, managed to catch that polymetra nice and early and only need antibiotics. Cool, alright, that's fine. So they send me back to get my cats, and you knock on the door and someone comes out to ask who you need back. So, I tell her my two cats, and she goes inside, comes back out, and asks "...did you come with two crates?"

Again, awesome, they forgot to call me, and they apparently lost one of my two cats. But don't fret, I look over her shoulder and lo and behold there are my cats. With their names on the crates. I'd give them the benefit of the doubt if they weren't named after food and pretty easy to spell. All in all they hand me my cats and explain the issue of my cat that /no one called me/ about. They give me some antibiotics, amoxacillan, and tell me to give it to my cat for 10 days, twice a day. No big deal. They explain literally nothing else, get me out of there as quick as humanly possible. Humanely possible. Heh.

They don't give me enough amoxacillan. But hey, everything has a way of working out. I had to take my other cat into the vet, where they told me that she was more or less healing really weird because they screwed up the incision. So, as a percaution, they give me more amoxacillan, plus extra since I told them about my shortage from the Humane Society. Thanks again karma.

So I guess we'll just see how my cat heals up. And at the end of the day, I'm sure some cats come out a little funny when you have them fixed. Especially when you've got an assembly line system going on in there (it has to be, right? I saw rows and rows of work spaces). What ended up just straight up leaving me livid was "no one called you?" and "did you come with two crates" like lord in heaven first you leave me thinking you've killed my cats, then you lose them. And yeah, I'm pretty salty over the messed up incision.

So thanks for fixing my cats. And almost giving me enough medication. And almost remembering to call me. And almost losing my cats. It was a...