Laguna Beach Animal Shelter — Local services in Laguna Beach

Anyone seriously committed to adopting a dog,, do not waste your time coming here. Apart from the lousy "customer service" as a few reviewers have noted ,1) their limited small sq ft. facility cannot accommodate many dogs; and 2) the upscale beach communities of Orange County generally do not have a large offering of adoptable pets as the Los Angeles area and the less affluent areas of North Orange County. In fact, at the Laguna Beach Animal Shelter it appears that they have to travel to Mexico to fill in for their shortage of adoptable pets. This review concerns my visit to the shelter to adopt Jesse, a special needs dog. I must preface this review that not only have I owned dogs since my birth (including horses and rabbits), but have considerable experience with caring for special needs dogs.But, a few words about the funding behind Laguna Animal Shelter and pet rescue orgs like them. The Laguna Animal Shelter website states that their funding arm is Pup Laguna Beach. GuideStar is helpful in investigating the ratio of expense (in particular, payouts to employees or independent contractors) to revenue. The most recent tax return listed is 2014, which indicates $370,000 in revenue and only 4 % spent on pet expenses so my immediate reaction and yours should be also what do they spend their money on? A non-profit organization that does not spend much money is as suspect as one that over-expenses. The latter is the case of an organization like Pet Match Rescue, the pet adoption center at Petco, that I have reviewed in the past on Yelp. As a comparison, GuideStar shows Pet Match Rescue with a 5 yr. $600,000 plus capital that in 2016 tax return indicates $127,000 in revenues and $128,000 in expenses, 24% of which has been paid out to independent contractors and professional services, resulting in a negative $1,000 debt factor. It is curious that these two pet rescue organizations are established by women, which in the minds of many women should be a positive thing, except that Laguna Animal Shelter, as evidenced by previous reviews, harbor a discriminatory attitude towards older, single women wanting to adopt pets, and seemingly biases couples and families who come into their facility. My recent visits to the LBAS have been 1) to license my two dogs and 2) to request if they could put up for adoption a dog that unknown to me I rescued from a puppy mill owner who was passed off to me as a neutered rescue, and later in paying out for the dog's neutering and extensive dental work ended up terrorizing one of my rabbits. In the first situation, the clerk barely moved from her chair to assist me, complaining that I arrived 15 minutes before closing--the whole licensing procedure took 5 minutes. In the 2nd situation, I was immediately cast off as an owner surrender which certainly was not the case, overlooking that I spent $3,000 caring for the dog's immediate needs. They hooked me up with one volunteer who independently adopted the dog, & never responded to my 3rd inquiry 6 mos. later how he was faring. Today, in coming to see Jesse, a dog rescued from Mexico, a disinterested volunteer directed me to where Jesse was caged, a few minutes later a 2nd volunteer accompanied me after informing her that Jesse was not in his cage, but had scurried back through his doggy door, the volunteer's response was that he was overheated. Still within the 2 pm cutoff the volunteer did not offer to take the dog out into the yard to see how he reacted to me. What I discovered was not what the advert stated, "sweet and affectionate", but a frightened dazed dog with no evidence of heat exposure, and in picking up the scent of my two dogs and two rabbits, started licking my fingers. The 1st volunteer told me no need to make out an application as they received so many-- there would be no problem in adopting Jesse; yet over the phone they told me to come in. When I questioned them if they had so many apps why no one had adopted him., they gave me a lame excuse that the applicants needed another to see him. All of them, PLEASE??...

At the beginning of the year, my partner and I decided that it was time to adopt a dog. We have always been lovers of these extraordinary creatures so we began to visit places trying to find the one that would be the right one that would brighten up our home.   We arrived at the shelter from Laguna beach where a group of nice and friendly puppies lived, and one of them caught our attention immediately.  A scared little puppy who had only a few days after arriving at the shelter named Stu with whom we made a connection.  So we asked if he was available to be adopted to which they answered yes. But due to an injury to one of his legs the little Stu had to remain under medical observation.   That did not matter to us and we decided to fill out the application and from that day on every weekend  we went to visit little STU.  We asked about his condition to which they told us that he continued to have problems with his leg and his behavior with  other dogs, but when they told us that we were in the first place to adopt him.  We did not care how long we had to wait for that to happen so we declined other options and for more than three months we visited Stu every weekend.   We became too fond of him and we could feel that he loved us too.  It was frustrating to see him desperate for wanting to get out of his cage and it broke our hearts when we had to leave him with his sad and desolate.   They did not always give us many reports about his condition.  The workers knew us since we were there every weekend. they gave us direct access to the cage where our little friend was because he could not go out to the patio, until recently it turned out that someone else was able to adopt him.  It was very sad and disappointing, we understand that the puppy needs special conditions due to the problem in his leg, but it is not fair to play with the feelings and time of the people and the puppy himself.  We believe they did not the that under consideration.    In short, we feel that we were discriminated against because of our sexual orientation and maybe because...

I wasn’t going to comment but given a recent response from this shelter has turkey bothered me. Not once was it sympathetic but argumentative which showcases how it operates. Recently I visited this shelter and was unimpressed by its lack of awareness of the dogs condition and status. A recent review was made from a visitor where a dog was under review for adoption for over three months. I am upset to hear their response that there were false allegations and no promise for adoptions. It’s clear through other reviews this is not the first time this has happened. Only wish I read its reviews before I visited. I visited the shelter with my partner for several weeks. If there wasn’t an opportunity, why would we have visited so often. I asked several times the status of an animal and the story changed several times, depending on who you spoke with. This demonstrated a clear lack of organization or a clear example of discrimination. Being told he couldn’t be adopted due a medical hold at the time (because the staff did not follow orders in caring for the dog extending his care). There would be no reason for me to visit for three months every weekend if there was a clear decision in the adoption. While there was an offer for any other dog, when I did inquire, dogs were still unavailable. If dogs are so in demand for adoption why are shelters showing privledge to certain adopters? I have kept logs and filing a complaint with the OC Humane Society I’d like to know who adopted this dog and proof of application since we were told on the last day there was an application just two days before me. The interactions that happen in three months are at minimum questionable if not discriminatory. Patrons should do their research. Applications to adopt are arduous so should inspections of shelters with...