Harris County Pets — Local services in Houston

( everyone needs to read this) My wife brought my 2 young sons to find their forever dog.see. they adopted a husky akita mix this past Wednesday after3noon and paid $50...Staff only allowed her to spend 2 mins with any animal and almost refused to help them because they said they had too many things to do to be able to stay with them. When they brought the dog home the dog became aggressive with my 3 year old son and myself and even though neutered was mounting everything including my kids. we returned the animal the next day and after finding our new dog, refused to reimburse us. Due to circumstances, they did make an exception and were allowed to adopt again that day instead of the policy of two weeks post-return. This time supervisor David ensured that staff would be very helpful, which they were. We found a dog named Titi (now Tank) listed as presa canario/ bull terrior.. he was/is the sweetest, most gentle guy we have ever seen. On his paperwork it says "Faint positive" for heart worms and no other conditions listed.. we asked harris county shelter vet tech about this along with other staff,, and were told it was more or less a "false positive" and to just to give him heartgaurd and he will be fine. He was listed for free i,f adopted that day because he had been at the shelter for 1 month... well we got him home and the first nightyt everything was great. The next morning he became very lethargic. We couldn't get him to even sit up and he couldn't keep his eyes open. It's is so sad because you could just tell he was suffering.. We called around everywhere for a vet appt. Well we just picked him up st 2pm today Saturday 5- 15- 21 just 48 hours after adopting him. We were told by the vet that he is 100% positive heartworms and not only should harris county have told us that but should of also said it's expensive to treat instead of lying to us.. the dog also has 2 types of worms, hook worm and rip worm. He also had a yeast infection In his left year. It says nothing about any of this on his paperwork but it proves that he has not been treated for any it.. not only were we completely lied to by harris county pets, but they knowingly placed my 2 babies in jeopardy of contracting these worms ad well as my wife and I.. Needless to say we will be calling them first thing Monday morning requesting them to, not only, foot the bill to treat the animal and reimburse us the money just spent to start treatment, but make them keenly aware of the potential fall out of refusing to make right by this horrific situation, and what may come if my kids, my wife, or I contract the worms... All we want it is the them to do right by this amazing baby we got and foot the bill for treatment of heartworm, hook worm, rip worm, and yeast infection. The part of this that breaks our heart the most is that the staff at this shelter knowingly lied to us putting us at risk of contracting parasites but that isn't the worst. The worst is that they knowingly let this innocent baby SUFFER for over a month. The vet we just saw told us that there is absolutely no way they wouldn't have known about him being sick and not feeling well. This poor baby is going to be given the best shot at life that we can offer him despite people like this not caring about him, his well being, all the other animals well being or any persons well being that might have...

I'm hesitant to begin writing this because we are still dealing with the aftermath of their disorganization a week after adopting our dog. We were never told the protocol of the facility so when we walked up to ask about a dog we were told she was already adopted & that we were supposed to take her paper. The protocol isn't the issue, the lack of communication letting us know was. Afterwards we were waiting to be put on hold for a dog (30-45 minutes) and they began to seat a family who was behind us in line because they didn't check the "virtual line" that all of our names were on. When we let them know, "hey- we're before them" they just told us to calm down. The next day I checked back in person to see if the other puppy we were interested was still available, I grabbed her paper, submitted all the paperwork, and let them know to remove us from the wait list/hold of the previous dog because we didn't want to risk losing the chance to take one of the two home. They told us everything was updated and we were good to go & that our pick up would most likely be Friday.

That night they called telling us she'd be ready the next day. Yay! Except they were about to give us the incorrect dog because nobody had updated the file for the animal we were waitlisted for. This means a dog went through surgery for no reason because they didn't update their paperwork.

When I called Thursday to confirm our dogs pick up they told me that she was rescheduled & that we might get her Saturday or later. Keep in mind, I only found out about the change in schedule because I called. When adopting, your schedule is basically on hold until you get your new animal because you want to be available for pick up.

Now- 10 days later our microchip wasn't working for our dog & it's because they never recorded our emails in her file.

Also- I don't know if this is protocol, but they don't say "no" which leads to unnecessary confusion. For example, we asked if we could play with one of the puppies & we were told, "well PARVO is high so right now thy could infect you" and so I said, "ok, so no? No worries!" Later we asked if we were allowed at the outside gates.. the answer? "yeah, but you'll be locked out if you do go out there!" Overall their communication needs improvement.

There are SO many dogs that clearly need to get out of there, but be prepared for utter chaos & triple check their paperwork every...

Warning for dog owners. .monday morning my dogs got out from my fenced yard because we neglected to secure the gate. When I got home from work monday evening and my dogs were gone I got in the car and started driving up and down the streets looking for them. I did not find them and I noticed that the usual strays in the neighborhood were not there also. I went home and checked websites looking for found dogs hoping to see my lost ones. Nothing. Tuesday evening after work I was looking again. I saw lost dogs signs but i did not find my dogs. I came home and started looking for pictures of my dogs to put on a lost dog sign. My husband and I agreed that somebody must be caring for them because if they were picked up by animal control they would have contacted us because my beagle mix had a microchip. I could not sleep Tuesday night and started checking the internet again for my dogs. I came across countypets (harris county veterinary public health) website. On my first search for my beagle mix it came up empty. Then I did a general search to see all dogs and sure enough I saw my "princess" she was listed as a German shepherd mix. I went there at 1pm when they opened for the day and identified my lost dogs. I was mad and started asking questions about why they did not check for a chip. They said we check all dogs coming in. I told them that I would have been there 2 days earlier if they would have contacted me. I was only told that I could have a supervisor call me to discuss it. After 2 hours waiting for my dogs I was not willing to match wits with anyone. I paid all the fees to have them released including the 3 days of boarding fees. I pointed out to them that if I had not checked their website then my dogs would have been dead because they neglected to check for a chip. They only hold dogs for 3 days before they are adopted out or put to sleep. I am still upset about the dogs getting out and for noone checking for a chip that I had implanted in my dog to prevent this from happening. im only giving 1star because I had to choose one when making a post and the dogs were found there alive. the website helped so thank you to whoever took the...