Greater Huntsville Humane Society — Local services in Huntsville

I had a negative experience adopting a cat from GHHS. First thing is the adoption system they have is flawed and a bit cruel. When you apply online for a cat, they can take days to approve your background. A bit frustrating but I get it. The problem is, if you don't pick up the cat as soon as possible once they approve your application, another person can come with an approved application right after you and get the cat. This makes it really stressful to wait days to know if you can even get the cat and then randomly getting a called mid day saying, hey come get this cat now or someone else can take it. This feels unfair that if I was busy the next day, someone could get the cat even though I applied first. Second, and more pressing matter, there is a lot of miscommunication when it comes to the health of their animals. We were told that the cat we wanted to adopt is getting over a contagious virus and that she should be done with her meds. We were given the cat and sent home. she looked bad but they told us she was fine and that she was getting over it. I took her home to our other cats and called again to see if I could get more information since she was clearly sick. They then tell us that they have medication for her that we could pick up if we really wanted to. So we did. We had a scheduled appointment with a vet 3 days later through the GHHS to get her spayed. The vet says she is very sick with a high fever. The GHHS tells the vet on the phone that they never treated her for this virus when they told us they did. So they sent us home with a cat who was contagiously sick knowing we had other cats, lied to us about her still being sick, didn't tell us she needed medication until after we got home, and then told the vet that they never gave her meds for something she was sick with for at least a couple days under their care. This is awful and I'm so glad my other cats didn't get sick too. Thanks to us, she is feeling better and was able to be spayed. I will never get another cat from GHHS again. (The vet they are contracted with was awesome, 5...

I have been to a number of pet adoption agencies lately all over Huntsville. I am surprised to day that GHHS is by far the worst. They keep all of their dogs outside 24/7 inside fenced areas. The shelter is located inside an industrial park, so the ground is little grass and a lot of gravel. The only shelter the dogs have from the elements is literally a tarp draped across the fence. Most of the tarps have holes in them or are tattered and falling down. Some of the dogs don't even have that to shelter them, though. The puppies were being kept outside as well, on a concrete pad with no roof over them. I HIGHLY doubt they actually know what they are doing. You can tell that they are there to push animals to families and don't actually care about their welfare while they are caring for them. Their food and water bowls were old buckets, most of which were knocked over from a lack of securing them to something sturdy or completely dry and empty.

Within about the first 2 minutes of being there, we felt like we were in the middle of trailer homes being shown abused animals by a fat lady wearing a moo-moo. We will NOT be adopting here due to the lack of professionalism by the staff and lack of attention to detail to ensure the care of the animals. Definitely STAY AWAY from here and go to either the Huntsville Animal Control (I know, its sad when the city does a better job) or a place called The Ark (by far, the best...

My husband and I went into GHHS to look at potentially adopting a puppy (we have since adopted from Animal Services). When we went in the lady at the front desk (elderly), was very rude and jumped to conclusions about us. We were wearing tshirts and jeans (as anyone would on an off day) and that must mean that we were looking for "the place with the free adoptions down the road". So if you dont dress nicely be prepaired to be judged for it. The first thing out of the woman's mouth was "if you are looking for the place with the free adoptions its Animal Services not us". We told her we knew that and we meant to be in this facility. She asked if we were sure and looked at us like trash. As if she was assuming we couldnt pay for a puppy from them. We were then ushered to the back rudely by another employee to look at dogs after assuring her that we were where we intended to be. We were told not to touch any animals. There were very few in there, shocking considering this place is always "full". We were just off put by the whole staff and decided to leave at this point. We were not going to be adopting due to not having any puppies (we must have a puppy due to an older dog with aggression issues) and the way we were disregarded and treated by staff. It was a...