Gaston County Animal Care and Enforcement — Local services in Gastonia

Unfortunately I had to move unexpectedly and have lived in Lincoln County for over 30 years. I tried desperately to find a rental in Lincoln County for several reasons, but wasn't able to find a decent affordable place to live in Lincoln County & tried for 3 months. Unfortunately I ended up in rural Gaston county, although I'm not in Gastonia thankfully. But 1 of the main reasons is that Lincoln County has a "NO KILL" shelter, and are in the process of building a multimillion dollar expansion of their shelter facility. They are absolutely wonderful and truly care about the animals. There's others also I'll list in near by counties or further. Google no kill shelters in the state of Nc. And if you don't live in the counties that have no kill shelters or rescues, but have family or friends that do, try to get them to help if they will. Because you'll need someone who lives in the county in some cases but not all. There's a possibility that a private rescue facility will help regardless of what area you live in. You gotta call around . I've had to say I was the one that was helping with strays etc for friends and got the animals the help they needed to be taken in to the no kill shelter a cpl times. Sometimes you just do whatever you have to do to save an animal. I use to rescue animals myself many years ago when I could afford it and owned my own home on a few acres. And if I couldn't find the animals, mainly cats, I'd keep them because there wasn't any no kill shelters at the time. I had a harder time homing cats than I did with dogs. Cats get a bad rap mainly because of the people who don't care for them and clean up after them properly and let them breed over and over, then they starve, get sick and can become a terrible situation. Lincoln County implemented the no kill shelter in 2017 or 2018 with the help of the then, county Mgr. Animal rescuers had tried for over a decade to make it a no kill but until the county Mgr did his part, they had no luck. There's a few no kill shelter and rescues I found, but there's more. You need to look it up and call around, it's not always easy, but if you care about an animals life, you need to do your part and take the time to find help. I'm so disappointed that I couldn't find a rental in Lincoln county because unfortunately where I live in Gaston county there's so many strays and the people who feed them Don't try to do anything else and they are multiplying fast. I had 5 strays trying to get me to let them in the house and I think the person who lived here previously was feeding them OR just left them when they moved, idk. Gaston county doesn't have the best reputation with animal control etc, but then again Lincoln County didn't either until the county Mgr was able to implement the no kill shelter and changed how the shelter was doing things, horrible Things. Now They do whatever they can to save animals, even surgery if needed etc. They typically have a special where you can adopt for a very low price and the animals are spayed or nuetered and have their shots and it's all included in the small fee. Use to be $20, idk what it is now. I have cats and they like to go out during the day but until I find a way to get the strays taken in some where that won't kill them, I can't let my cats out. Luckily I have a large screened in back porch they can go in when they want out for now anyway. But I'd prefer they be able to actually go outside a little bit when they want to. Strays are a problem and it's not their fault, it's PEOPLE that are the problem and the reason most landlords Don't allow pets, mainly cats. Because many people are pathetic, disgusting and trashy. They leave the home in unlivable. Fur Babies in Hickory, Asheville, Pender county, faithful friends animal sanctuary in Salisbury, North Mecklenburg animal rescue There's a lot more out there, and also some that will help you with vet fees for your own pets when you can't afford a vet visit. HATS-Helping Animals To Survive on Facebook serves...

First and foremost I want to say the front desk receptionist was very personable and professional. As we walked around to look at the dogs (we already knew the one we had our eye on) they let us(my wife and i) walk her for about 20 min then we received a call and were told they needed to discuss a few things with us and then asked if we were planning on adopting. We said yes because we instantly fell in love with her. (They called her rose) she was listed as an available adoption and when we went back into the building a rescue was there waiting to take her away. Don't get me wrong I am glad she went with a rescue rather than stay in that filthy jail for dogs, but someone flubbed and didn't disclose she was being held for 24 by a rescue. Naturally my wife was emotional and sad because we truly wanted her. I didn't get the ladies name but there was another employee who was extremely rude and spoke to my wife like she was stupid for not understanding why they would give us the ok to walk and consider adoption if a rescue were coming to get her. She (the nasty employee) was condescending and truly unprofessional when all we wanted to know was what happened. Someone made a mistake on their end and did not want to admit it was basically what i gathered since we weren't given any real explanations. I will be figuring out who this employee was and filing a formal complaint on her conduct to whomever the higher up is. She not only talked over us but over the receptionist as well who was attempting to apologize and explain the process. That woman is clearly not in anyway capable of dealing with the public professionally and I still don't understand why a rescue would take a dog when a couple are there right then more than willing to give the sweet pup "rose " a forever home. Doesn't seem like they care much about the animals and more like they care about the politics . Unacceptable behavior on whoever that rude woman was especially when dealing with people who are trying to actually do a good service to animals who otherwise would...

Wish I could give negative stars! This place is terrible. I don't think I've ever been so angry and frustrated with people...ever. My husband and I drove all the way from Forest City NC on Tuesday to try and adopt a puppy. My hubby filled out all the forms, was approved so we were excited. We were informed that we couldn't see the puppy because he was scheduled to be neutered that day and he would be ready to go Thursday morning. We drove all the way back on Thursday, got there at 8:00am to wait til they opened at 11:00. A security guard came up and asked what we wanted. We said we had come hoping to adopt. He goes inside. Comes back out wanting to know WHICH puppy we wanted. Goes back inside and comes out a little bit later saying that the girl who told us to come back Thursday was 'new' and apparently told us the wrong info. That it would be Friday, the next day, to come back. So we make our 3rd trip the next day (Friday) and there were 2 girls literally sitting in front of the door and it's 2 hours before they open. I had a bad feeling they wanted the same pup we did. And I was right. Through things I'd overheard and putting together what we saw and heard over the last 4 days I'm almost SURE that things were set up the way they were so WE would be cheated out of that particular puppy...in favor of those 2, who had already adopted a dog that she had with her. I could be wrong, but it sure seemed that way. And since they have a 'first come first served' policy AND a 'no holds' policy, it's actually pretty easy to work around BOTH those stipulations in favor of who THEY want to give animals to. And when we got upset, saying this was our 3Rd time there and we felt like we'd just been scammed. The girl at the desk says 'We have other puppies'. Well good for her, but we didn't Want other puppies, we wanted ONE particular puppy. Yes, we were loud and pretty rude, but we were ANGRY...and I don't particularly feel bad about it. Apparently the old saying 'It's all about who you know' applies to pet adoptions as well. Very Shady...