Humane Society Of The Tennessee Valley — Local services in Knoxville

I wanted to share our story. I am sorry it is a long one. A tragic beginning with a miraculous heartwarming ending.

We adopters sign papers stating shelter animals history is unknown and they may become sick after being adopted. It is not the norm yet has to be acknowledged. HSTV can not predict nor can we as we choose our furry friend. The people involved really do care and want everyone to find a healthy pet. There will always be some tragedy when taking in unwanted animals and trying to give them a chance at life. They work many more MIRACLES here than sad endings. Our story:

I adopted my step-son in June. His mother abandoned him and never looked back a few years ago (he was 6, he is 9 now). Once our HUMAN adoption was final, we decided to give our son his first puppy. A lesson was to be learned in our decision to adopt an abandoned baby. I wanted to show my son that even though tragic things happen in life, you can let it bring you down or you can let it make you a better person. So off we go to save a puppy that understood how it felt it be discarded. We fell in love with a beagle mix, Rocky. He was perfect. We had Rocky for only 4 days when he became ill and tested positive for parvo as did his litter mate from the shelter. No other puppies had it. They were just babies and likely someone unknowingly brought it in. They were not old enough to be immune yet from the vaccinations :( Rocky stayed at the vets for a week and they did everything they possibly could , kept us well informed and we visited him several times. Our sweet little Rocky did not survive :( We were heartbroken and we could tell the vet & staff at HSTV were too. This, of course, was not the lesson I was going for. So we contacted HSTV and found another beagle at a sister shelter. HSTV, SOS Beagle Rescue, the vet, and fosters got together to make this happen for our son. We had to decontaminate the house. Since parvo lives in soil for a long time, we had to be patient and wait for our new boy to get a bit older and be fully vaccinated. The vet and we agreed we wanted a titer test done at end of vaccines to check his parvo resistance prior to bringing him home as we did not want to risk endangering him or be heartbroken again. His titer test came back as high as it could. He was safe to come home! Yay!

Don't give up what you seek because life makes it hard. This place worked miracles and delivered us a very healthy happy ending. People we did not even know heard our story and stepped in to foster him for us and let us visit :) Many people from different places came together. We could have been mad, demanded our money back, written a mean google review. But why? We still wanted a puppy for our son to love. A little understanding and patience goes a long way as does all the compassion of the strangers that helped us finally get our son a puppy. No matter how it started, their hearts showed they care in how they let it end. Thank you to all involved. It brings me to tears and deeply touches our hearts. Our son is smiling again and our new "Ranger" will be cherished furever. Rocky RIP

Please be careful when adopting from this shelter!!!!!! This shelter and attached vet clinic does not do what their website clearly states they do. We adopted a 7 month old cat who was supposed to have all of her shots and vaccines up to date, we later came to find out she was not given a shot or tested for Feline Leukemia. We found this out after the workers had us take our resident cat, Mina, to their clinic to be tested for the disease. When we took Mina to their clinic they accidentally gave her the vaccine instead of the test, WHICH IS NOT WHAT WE BROUGHT HER FOR OR WANTED! We decided that it wasn't a big enough deal to stop us from going through with the adoption of Melanie (now Riley). Shortly after bringing our new baby home we discovered she was breathing abnormally and had an extensive amount of eye mucous. After a vet visit we were told she had an upper respiratory infection, also not a huge deal...it happens! However, this was not the last of our troubles. While at the vet he asked us if the HSTV had given us records of Riley having the feline leukemia test/vaccine, which they hadn't. My boyfriend, John, went back to the shelter to retrieve these records which we figured they had just forgotten to give to us since it states on their website that "ALL HSTV CATS HAVE BEEN TESTED FOR FELINE LEUKEMIA VIRUS...". We were wrong! He was told that they had no records of this test being performed on Riley. They only had a record of her mother being tested, meaning other kittens from this litter are potentially in danger of contracting the illness. The shelter then offered to test her for free as though they were doing us a favor! This being AFTER we exposed not only our resident cat but also my mothers cat to Riley. THANKFULLY Riley tested negative for Leukemia. However, this does not and should not take these neglectful workers off the hook. Not only did my boyfriend have to take time off work to deal with this situation but the manager, Lisa, did not even have the common courtesy to speak with me after I had come to in voice my concerns. I did, however, find Kayla very helpful and I feel very sorry that her manager pawned the dirty work off to her and made her return my phone call.

I hope that any potential foster parent or adopting family reads this and takes extra precaution when adopting from this shelter. I do not want to discourage any adoptions from taking place, for the sake of the homeless animals, but I do hope that this post makes other people aware of the type of service they will receive when adopting at this humane society. I also hope that the families who adopted Rileys siblings find this post and make sure their kittens have the proper...

My first impression of the place was amazing. The staff seemed great, they treated the animals nice, the kennels were clean and had plenty of room for the animals to move around. We told the staff member helping us that it was very important the dog we adopt was able to be around other dogs since we already have a golden retriever. We mentioned several times we have another dog and she showed us the ones that were okay with them. We found one dog who was the sweetest boy ever. He just came to the shelter the day before and you could tell he was scared. As soon as we got back to the room to sit with him one-on-one all he wanted to do was sit and stare at you while you pet him, he would lay his head on you and just chill. He was exactly everything I was looking for and I got attached to him pretty fast. The staff member came back and asked if we wanted to put a hold on him and fill out an adoption form and I said absolutely. After I filled out the form she took it and read over it and saw our current dog hasn’t been neutered. She asked if we had a date set up to do that and we said no, he is AKC registered and the stipulation when we got him was that we couldn’t fix him so the original breeder could breed him and get one liter and then we could fix him. After hearing he wasn’t fixed she told us they wouldn’t adopt out to us. I understand the reasoning behind this however I don’t agree with it as I think a dog having a good home and not be stuck in a shelter where they are visibly scared is more important than whether or not a dog we currently have is fixed. I also think it was so cruel of her not to mention this to us when we first got there and said we have another dog. Instead, she let us get attached to this sweet boy and then quickly took him away. TLDR: the facility is nice and clean and the animals are seemingly treated kindly, however the staff needs to communicate their policies prior to letting you get your heart...