Golden Paw Pet Rescue — Local services in Joplin

I never leave reviews but after this entire experience I had to. About two months ago my husband adopted a dog from here. The dog herself was about $500- expensive for a rescue dog yes- but we both absolutely fell in love with this pup. He drove three hours to go get her. When he arrived, they notified him that she had just been spayed and may be off because of the anesthesia. It was odd we were not notified before but no biggie. The entire car ride home the dog threw up 23 times. Very little food, mostly bile. We figured it may be because of anesthesia or the bumpy ride. After arriving home after two hours the dog continued to throw up. She would sip water then throw it up immediately. She couldn’t get any food down. We also noticed her breathing was raspy and gurgly. We made an emergency vet appointment and took her in after being home only a couple of hours. On the way to the vet, I called Golden Paw to explain the situation- to which they told me the entire litter threw up all the time because they were nervous. First- this was never disclosed- Second- nervous? This dog could not even get water down! After meeting with the vet, we found she was extremely malnourished. Due to recent surgery and with her being so new, they gave us anti nausea medication as well as a shot to help her not throw up. This medication was not enough though, she continued throwing up anything she ate or drank- and throwing up even when she did not eat or drink. We again took the dog to the vet. This time, since issues persisted they ran multiple tests. Turns out this dog had severe pneumonia that had likely been ongoing as her lung growth seemed to be entirely stunted. After more results came back, we also found out she had Giardia. It had been disclosed that there were both other animals as well as children in the home- this sickness could have spread and injured them as well. These diagnoses came only after a couple of days of her being at our home. She received treatment for both of these, we also had to medicate the other dog to avoid the Giardia spreading. Due to her being so malnourished, we hand make this pups food every day- fresh. Multiple medications every single day, basically 24/7 care. Even after mostly resolving the pneumonia and giardia, we continued taking the dog to the vet almost weekly for multiple reasons. Fatigue, throwing up, blood in throw up. The vet was highly concerned and wanted to run even more tests now realizing that these issues were not just stunted growth or left over stuff from the pneumonia. After multiple x rays we found that the dog had severe megaesophagus. This required us to feed the dog vertically, completely have an altered diet, as well as frequent medical monitoring. This is the reason why she was not gaining weight, why she has been throwing up. The vet even thinks there are far more issues that we are yet to find. A puppy with megaesophogus could die within months if left untreated. Now, I understand that dogs may get sick within a rescue. I understand that adopting a dog poses that risk and medical responsibility ( which we have no issue undertaking at all) but the complete and utter negligence to see clear signs of being sick (throwing up, malnutrition) being totally ignored is completely unacceptable. Upon adoption, we were told the dog had just been cleared by a doctor the day before. Clearly, no thorough check was done on this dog. Anyone who sees a malnourished dog who is unable to eat- let alone professionals working for a “rescue”- would be able to see further tests needed to be done. There was no disclosure of any health problems when we left with the dog- we were told she was happy and healthy. If Golden Paw is willing to sell a dog who is malnourished and actively sick I can only imagine what condition some of the pups are in behind closed doors. My heart breaks for this situation as we avidly love supporting rescues- but i cannot say a single good thing about this place other than it’s given us the sweetest pup. this is...

My dog got loose on 6-9-21. A friend of mine helped me with posting that he was missing. I was beside myself with grief. Yesterday 6-10-21 she told me that he was found by someone and taken to Golden Paw. ( which is the place I adopted him from last June). I was so relieved that I immediately got in my car to get there. When I arrived at Golden Paws, all I wanted was to see my baby Buttercup. I was asked if I had ownership papers. I explained that I recently moved and they were somewhere packed up at my new home. I had pictures of him on my phone, I told them the color of his collar. I could hear him barking on the other side of the door because he heard my voice. The girl with the long dark hair was the rudest person to me. I told her I adopted him there so surely they could look at the adoption records. Yes they found where I adopted a dog but they did not even have a picture of the dog I adopted yet was telling me if I couldn’t prove he was mine that I was not getting him. I was beyond upset. I had just spent over 24 hours looking for my dog, no sleep and filled with grief. You post his picture that he’s been found, I immediately come, I show you pictures of him on my phone, I describe his collar, even tell you he was groomed and had a strip on his back where the hair is shorter than the rest, he is going crazy barking because he heard my voice out there and you still give me a hard time. Zero compassion. Thank god for my vet office in Neosho for saving the day. My baby got to come home with me. This is not a situation I will forget anytime soon. I understand that everyone has a job to do but the way I was treated yesterday was wrong. In this industry you not only deal with animals but you also deal with families. I’m not one to write bad reviews on anyone but yesterday was one of the worst experiences of my life dealing with a persons customer...

I volunteered my time here for a little bit a couple of years ago. I was paying $40 for an Uber one way to help this organization. The conditions were disgusting. There are 4-5 dogs to a kennel with very little room for them to move. They all looked malnourished and neglected. A puppy not even 4 months of age died while I was there helping and they didn’t investigate why he passed away. He had no visible markings on him, instead of sending him off to a vets office to get checked out they went out and buried him in the back. The front staff girls were horrible to me and acted as if they were better than everyone. There were two kennel staff who were very kind to me and the only ones who were appreciative of me. They showed me what they needed help with and let me pet a few dogs and see the cats. They were the only good part about my experience volunteering for them. I met the owner once and it wasn’t a pleasant experience. She questioned me as to why I was there helping. She got very upset with me when I checked my phone to see if the car that had pulled up was my Uber because I didn’t want to pay $10 extra waiting for 5 minutes while I had to sit there and let her belittle me. After my experience with her, I didn’t return. My friend adopted her dog from them after two weeks they came and took her dog from her while she was in the process of registering him as her service dog, they took his harness and everything that she had spent her own money on and I also adopted a cat from them that passed away a month after I adopted him. This organization is disgusting and it really should be shut down, the dogs need to be rescued from this so called “rescue”. I hope the department of agriculture looks more in depth into this one, there are so many animals here...