Arizona Humane Society South Mountain Campus — Local services in Phoenix

We recently adopted a dog from the Arizona Humane Society, and the experience has been extremely disheartening. During our meet-n-greet , we were told she was healing from an open wound that was visible on her belly. However, when we got her home, the wound bled through out the night and it was clear that it was painful and irritating for her. When we later received her medical records (by email the morning after adoption, instead of being sent home with them), it showed that this issue had been ongoing and treated repeatedly without success. Her records only listed lesions that were the suspected result from her time living on the street.

Less than 24 hours from adoption, our vet suggested our dog be seen for emergency surgery. We then reached out to the Humane Society for guidance and were advised to surrender her back to be re examined. The organization kept her for a little over three weeks, where they gave her medicated baths for most of the time and and only started a round of antibiotics near the end of her stay. After giving us brief updates and telling us how well she had been doing, they call us suddenly to inform us they believed her wound to actually be cancer, which they "do not test for or treat". We were told they could do nothing more for her and asked how soon we could pick her up.

In the short time she has been with us, we have received a formal diagnosis of squamous cell carcinoma with multiple mast cell tumors, and have spent thousands of dollars on mass removals and other oncology/dermatology treatments. What’s most upsetting is that we were not given full transparency about her condition from the start, as many of her treatment providers have wondered why she was even adopted out in her state. We found out the "wound" mentioned at the beginning of this review was a ruptured cancerous mass. The mass had progressed due to lack of proper treatment and excessive licking, since it was left uncovered while she was kenneled and she was not wearing an E-Collar. Her "sores" and "skin irritation" listed in her records were actually all cancerous lesions, spreading over the entirety of her belly.

This whole ordeal has left us in a painful and costly situation that could have been avoided. We adopted with the best intentions of giving her a loving home, and instead were left feeling misled and deeply disappointed. Though we appreciate the general work of AHS, we will not be adopting...

Do not adopt from here!!!! Do NOT. After years of looking into buying a dog, I finally decided to do it. I had never been more excited and I was going through a really hard time in life so I thought it would be the best time to have a companion to get me through. The exact opposite happened when I adopted from here and caused me unbelievable trauma, stress, and depression. I adopted instead of buying because I wanted to save a life. The dog I adopted not only came home with me sick and lethargic after they had told me she was just “shy” but had a rare disease that wasn’t disclosed in the paperwork. This was all found out just days after bringing the dog home. After reaching out to the shelter multiple times in panic after the dog I had brought home immediately started acting lethargic I was sending emails, calls, showing up to the shelter, doing everything I possibly could they gave 0 damn about what was going on, had 0 remorse, and gaslight me. All the emails I had sent went to spam due to the receptionist giving me a spam email, I spent days and days upset panicking about what to do. They ended up taking the dog back which was the last thing I wanted to do but ultimately the best decision after plenty of vet visits within the first WEEK of adopting the dog and the fact that she was diagnosed with a rare disease and had to be kept in the ICU in their care. After spending hundreds on vet bills just days after adopting her, not only did they get to take the dog back, they didn’t reimburse me for the frantic vet visits without direction that I had asked them for. Something needs to be done in shelters where they’re doing bloodwork BEFORE letting people bring home a dog. This has cause immense trauma to me who was just someone trying to do a good deed. These dogs need to be inspected NOT BY VET STUDENTS. Not only am I now out of money, but I am now without a dog and feel immense guilt and sadness. I really didn’t want to write this review. But it has been a month, no refunds, no remorse, just a bunch of unanswered emails and leftover sadness. and not any part of me wants to give up fighting for the rights of these poor animals being sent to homes way too early without proper care. DO NOT...

A couple months ago, my beloved boxer Boxy passed away from cancer. I had been debating if we would get another fur baby any time soon. My daughter and I had been looking at kitties over the last couple weeks and we came across several that caught our attention. Yesterday (Nov. 28th) I went in and met two adult cats, Leo and Max. Leo was most definitely a lover but Max was very scared. The brothers were to be adopted together so we did exactly that. I was interested in a kitten as well. I walked the area where the were housed and we saw this little man who was 14 weeks old, new to the shelter and he was just this ball of joy! I decided to bring him home as well. Of course the adult kitties were scared when we got home and hid under my bed but the kitten instantly fell right into place and was having a blast. It didn't take long for the kitten to find the brothers and thankfully everyone did good. We left the house for a few hours and we decided to watch them on the camera. All kitties came out and roamed the house, played, discovered and did very well. This morning, all kitties are doing great, laying with one another, snuggling up to us humans, and making this their home as well. Having them here after the loss of our pup has really made our home complete once again.

I gave a 4 only because of the lady we worked with. She was great but I felt rushed and when I inquired about the kitten, she couldn't find any info on the kitten. She told me the kitten must of been on hold for a future adoption (drive up). I asked how was that possible if it were first come first serve. She didn't bother to look further into it and just kind of dismissed me. When I was in the lobby filling out paper work, I happened to find the file for the kitten RIGHT NEXT TO ME and inquired yet again. The lady who sits in the lobby said the kitten was new and that's why there wasn't any information in the system but that he was adoptable, she just hadn't put it in. I of course moved forward with the adoption. I just wish the original lady had taken more initiative about finding info out rather than dismissing my interest and trying to rush me. Nonetheless, Thank you to the...