Animal Services Center of the Mesilla Valley — Local services in Las Cruces

I’m devastated by the treatment I recieved and for the lack of care the vet assistant showed me and this poor dog I tried to rescue.

I took home a little guy who I was told was mostly depressed and not eating much and was on the list to be put down. I fell in love with him and he started eating but the day after I took him home he was really sick, vomiting, diarrhea and I did not change his food. I thought I would give it another day and it got worse. I took him to Texas for a walk in visit as no one can get animals in anywhere for at least two weeks. The doctor said he was really concerned. Ran parvo test as o have other dogs which was negative. They have him some meds to help him.

As soon as I got home he started bleeding badly from his nose. I did not know what to do so I drove back to the shelter since they didn’t answer all day. I was mostly looking for guidance on what to do.

The ladies that work there were really cool but the vet assistance guy I think Christian or Cameron was incredibly insensitive and rude.

No one ever told me my only option there was to put him down or surrender him. It’s not on the paperwork that this was all they did. I started asking what other options do I have meaning where could I go, and he got mad at me and I asked him to stop saying all I can do is kill the dog and he went on to say we can’t even look at him unless you give him up. I didn’t know.. All he had to do was explain things more and I maybe would have understood but he started get more mad and jumped up and down mad at me. All he cared about was hurrying me into deciding to kill the pup or release him. Luckily he walked away and the girl was very sweet and walked me through it enough.

This was the worse experience and broke my heart. I am a big animal person and rescue a lot but I will never go back.

Not to mention when I walked in the girls were trying to understand what i was there for and the other guy behind the desk told them given the money back and get the dog and I was like no sir that’s not why I here and I don’t care about the money I just want this pup to not be hurting anymore but I don’t know what to do.

An NO this was not explained nor is it in the paperwork that this is what happens when you bring them in within the 10 days.

Terrible and this heartless vet assistant is in the wrong field. Bad reflection of the...

I came to this facility out of desperation as I have been witnessing a feral cat in my neighborhood slaughter birds for way too long. Might I add she's not doing this for survival. I was nearly in tears and pleading with the front desk for help as I had the cat in the car with me, only to be mocked and laughed at by three out of four staff members. I feed the wild birds and the cat also to try to discourage it from eating birds. I've taken many injured birds down to El Paso as that is the closest place that will take them. I explained to the front desk it was deteriorating my mental health to deal with this for such a long time and they thought it was hilarious. I eventually spoke to Mayura, a manager, and she did not mock me. She did say she would do her best to place the cat as a barn cat but I know her hands are tied. I wasn't able to catch the staffs' names but after Mayura left, there was still nasty attitudes which ultimately convinced me the cat would just be returned right back to the neighborhood. I was asked by Mayura to look at it the same as a coyote eating a bunny in the wild and while I understand her passion for cats, this is not the case. If the roles were reversed and that coyote was pulling limbs off cats' bodies in front of your eyes, either at your home or in front of your lobby doors multiple times a week, would you be able to stop yourself from intervening? Would you stand by and do nothing? As you are a cat advocate I'd bet my life you wouldn't. It's a lose-lose situation for everyone involved because I will never reach out to any facility ever again the next time this problem arises. I love all animals and tried to do what I thought was best for the cat but I got treated like I was somehow the one in the wrong. A feral cat is not my responsibility, it's the responsibility of the human who abandoned it. I've done my best with the cat but clearly according to this facility it is not...

I adopted my dog in August and within a couple of days, it was evident that she had severe kennel cough. By the second day of her coughing, I called the shelter to have her seen immediately. They said they couldn’t see her and lethargic behavior is normal. The next day, the coughing was constant 24/7 and I called the shelter again, telling them that she needed to be seen ASAP. Finally, after weeks of monitoring and medication, her cough went away. After that, I called every other week to possibly get her scheduled to be spayed. For months, I was given different reasons why there wasn’t availability, only to have another staff member give me a different reason. I emailed the shelter’s coordinator, and after a month of not hearing back, I called again. Suddenly they had availability for the next morning. While waiting for three months, my dog went into heat for over two weeks, which was inevitable, but I was hoping to get her spayed in order to avoid the extra hassle. After surgery, they sent my dog home without a cone because “female dogs usually can’t reach the stitches” and “cones are really cheap at the store”. Well now the dog is trying to reach the stitches, meaning that I have to watch her 24/7 until I can get a cone because the shelter’s veterinary team didn’t see it necessary to give a dog a cone after having surgery. Overall, the adoption experience was great and I found the perfect dog here, but it’s the staff’s laziness and apparent carelessness that made the last three months a headache. They try to hold off on attending to the animal’s medical needs for as long as possible. I think that if I weren’t persistent enough after my dog had kennel cough, she would have died from not being treated. The vet care is free as long as the dog is not fixed, so I guess you get what...