Friends of Strays Animal Shelter — Local services in Pinellas Park

TL:DNR: Friends of Strays sold us a very, very sick puppy. They didn't disclose a zoonotic (infectious to humans) condition they later admitted they knew the puppy had (or should have known), putting our family at risk. They (effectively) refused to help with the (expensive) medical issues the puppy had from their shelter. 0/5 do not adopt your pet from here.

We adopted a puppy from them that is so very, very, very sick. It's cost us hundreds of dollars to deal with her medical issues. 100% of the medical issues CAME from this shelter but "it's been over a week so we can't help you." Our puppy came out of there with kennel cough, coccidiosis, and tapeworms. We were told about the kennel cough but not the other two. I'm actually shocked at how sick this puppy is and what a burden it is to our family (it's really stretching our resources to deal with this many health issues). If I could give 0/5 I would.

Our puppy had explosive diarrhea 5 days in, we rushed her to the vet, was coccidiosis. Called Friends of Strays to get the cost of dealing with it refunded "Oh you should have come to us. Most of our dogs have coccidiosis." (Coccidiosis is a ZOONOTIC disease that could give my TODDLER PARASITES.) Oh so I should wait for you to open when my animal is sick and not take her to the vet? Oh well our medical wing is open earlier, oh jeese shame you didn't tell me that. Didn't ask for the $90 vet visit refunded, just the $30 medication, nope. Then more medical issues arise, we're ready to take them there directly "Nope sorry, it's been 7 days." All these issues came from your shelter. Our animal hasn't been outside other than our back yard (where no other dog has ever been) and our animal has had zero contact with other animals (because she's sick) so there's NO WAY she got these medical issues ANYWHERE but from Friends of Strays (or before Friends of Strays, but it's still their responsibility, we paid them $200 for a healthy animal.) I just, I'm ranting.

To summarize. We adopted a puppy from Friends of Strays and it came with several serious medical issues. They have been utterly uninterested in helping and were only too glad 7 days ran out before we discovered the THIRD medical malady that came from their shelter. They don't care about you, they obviously take poor care of their animals, please get your pets somewhere else. 0/5.

Edit: My wife read my review, "harsh but true." She wants me to add that please DO get your pets from there, and get them proper medical care. It's not the pets fault that they're in a shelter that gets them sick (or lets them remain sick) and passes them off to others without even properly disclosing their medical issues. When I called Friends of Strays to tell them about the coccidiosis they said "Oh yeah most of our dogs have coccidiosis." Oh really? Then why didn't you give me medication for it, or even tell us. It's a zoonotic (infectious to humans as well) disease, my 4 year old son could end up with intestinal parasites and they DIDN'T EVEN TELL US AND THEY ADMITTED THAT THEY KNEW and I had to pay for medication for it. CRIMINAL!

Edit: My wife would also like me to add that we really love our puppy and are taking her medical issues in stride. She's part of our family and we'll care for her as needed. We're just really upset that we were misinformed on her health, that she was so very unhealthy in the first place, and that Friends of Strays has no interest in helping rectify the issues THEY caused (and/or failed to disclose...

I'm so disappointed with my experience here. I was excited about the organization originally and even applied to volunteer. I have since changed my mind after my fiancée and I came and adopted two cats. The adoption application was lacking. The organization seems like they are only in it for money, and may not care about the animals health and well being. They have a generic form for both cat and dog adoptions. The form does not ask if there are animal abuse charges on record, or if you have the means to support the animal. It seems the only determining factor is if you agree not to declaw the cat and if you have approval from a landlord if you rent.

Having volunteered for a long time at my local shelter before moving here, I had a lot of experience with FIV cats. I worked and volunteered almost exclusively with them.

When we arrived at the shelter I found a kitten I liked and my fiancée found a cat as well. The woman who was showing us through our adoption tried to push other cats on us. Then she tried to convince us to take three cats. When we said no, she came and looked at the cats we wanted. She told us the cat my fiancée picked out had FIV. I was disappointed and said we would look for a different cat since we wanted two and you should never house an FIV + cat with another cat who is negative. The adoption counselor then told us what I had just said was a myth, and that the only way the older cat we picked out would infect the kitten was through a deep bite. I questioned her again, saying I worked with FIV cats at a shelter. I told her we always kept our in a separate room, and that I thought FIV was pretty serious. She said that the cat was fine, would not have any difference in life, and no immune issues. She went on to say she would have no different for vet bills. I really thought that was so odd, but then questioned if things had changed since I volunteered at the shelter.

She convinced us to take the two cats. We got home and saw that the FIV cat had also been pregnant before spay, something the shelter did not tell us. We also fact checked the information the adoption counselor told us. We spoke to vet friends, and checked Cornell vets most up-to-date advice for FIV cats.

FIV cats are not to be house together. FIV cats live shorter lives, falling ill and dying early. Our cat is very likely to infect the kitten we adopted. It is so saddening to have been lied to just so the shelter could get more cats out the door. In doing so they shortened this cats life.

In short I would not recommend adopting from here. The shelter only tests for FIV when the cats first arrive. The shelter has a separate FIV to, but it is not the only room they use. They also keep FIV + cats in ALL of their cat rooms. Meaning any cat coming from the shelter can and may have FIV.

The shelter is actively endangering the cats there. You might want a kitten but the kitten is likely sick. From everything I have seen, it really seems like the shelter is "flipping" cats...

My family and I adopted an eleven month old puppy around four weeks ago that we were told had been with a foster up until the day before. The foster notes were that the puppy was a huge cuddle bug and completely potty trained. She also had been spayed pretty recently. We obviously expected accidents especially because our new puppy was in a new environment with a new dog etc. What we proceeded to go through were not at all normal "puppy accidents". Our cuddle bug proceeded to pee everywhere. On everything. Even after we began a routine of bringing her outside every fifteen minutes to go pee she would pee AGAIN once we got back inside. She didn't even seem to notice she was peeing. We were trying to chalk it up to her not actually being potty trained which wasn't our favorite thing to deal with but we've had puppies before so we knew how to go about it. We also got some doggy cranberry chews to maybe help our situation. After around 6 days though we noticed her spay scar looked incredibly red and nasty. FOS had informed us if any health issues arose before the seven day mark, they would help us with the issue. We contacted FOS only for the lady on the phone to insinuate we were trying to get money out of them last minute as the seven day mark was the following day and she found it odd our puppy was having issues right before the week was up. It was ridiculous and an extremely defeating phone call to have to go through. We emailed pictures of her completely red and inflamed belly which they responded with, "Was normal and she was probably playing too hard.". We brought her into FOS later that week begging for them to just check her for a UTI which included looking at her behind and going, "No she's fine.'. I promise you a dog peeing upwards of twenty-five times in a twelve hour period is NOT fine. Well lo and behold after bringing her to a different vet they took one look and immediately informed us she had a raging UTI. We were told she had supposedly had it for months. She so was filled with bacteria we had begun to smell it and so could our vet staff. We are super disappointed with the customer service received here and after reading other reviews it seems she isn't the only dog/cat they've adopted out with undisclosed health issues. I would be wary when adopting through...