Sacramento County Bradshaw Animal Shelter — Local services in Rancho Cordova

We have had issues with Bradshaw Shelter a few times over the years. This past weekend took the cake for ultimate screw up!

We have a seizure dog and we know how to care for her. We adopted her from a different location away from Bradshaw. She was 13 or 14 yrs old when we adopted her. At 17 yrs old, she started having seizures. Our vet told us that as long as she is ok after the seizure, and comfortable, we could treat the seizures or let her just enjoy the last few yrs of life. We had opted for Cannibus Oil for her seizures and acupuncture to help keep the seizures down. They were mild after a few months and would have 1 large seizure every 4 months or so.

Fast forward a year, and we are at the age of 18 and it is April of 2018. Our non seizure dog ended up having kidney failure and pancreatitis at the age of 14. We were taking him in to the vet daily to have him get fluids and dialysis. It was stressing our seizure dog out that she ended up having 2 seizures in 2 days and they were massive seizures. The second one was around 11am on a Sunday and she lost movement in her back legs. Our vet was not open on Sunday. We felt it was her time and it was a horrible decision to make. But, she was 18 and we gave her the best 4 yrs we could. And we knew she was 18 and it was no longer going to be a quality life for a senior citizen who is immobile. We took her to Bradshaw, seeing as it was one of the only open facilities on a Sunday afternoon.

I walked in with our dog wrapped in a blanket and in tears. I explained the situation to the lady at the desk. She stood up, didn't tell me they could help me and immediately went and got a "supervisor." The supervisor came out and told me they could not treat the animal on a Sunday. I needed to take her to my vet in the morning or contact them and take her in on that day. I looked at her and told her we needed her euthanized due to medical reasons. She had lost her ability to walk and had had a seizure. The supervisor told me that they were a stray facility and that they could take her, hold our dog for 3 days and after 72 hrs, medical staff would evaluate her, treat her and then make the decision to euthanize or not. But, they would put her, untreated, no pain meds, nothing, in a kennel, for 72 hrs and then euthanize. I told her our dog wouldn't make it through the night. Her response was, "Not my problem. Call your normal vet then. We aren't touching your dog. Unless you surrender, we aren't taking her."

Within 12 hrs, our dog passed in our home. And it wasn't as peaceful as it would have if they would have euthanized for us.

Less than 12 hrs after our dog died, I got an email from TEAM (Teaching Everyone Animals Matter) who is affiliated with Bradshaw. They are doing a day of giving where people donate to make a difference in the lives of animals. I was so upset about the email, I clicked on "unsubscribe" and they wanted to know why. I clicked "other." Then I explained why I wanted nothing to do with TEAM or Bradshaw Shelter. Five business days later, the director of the shelter and a board member of TEAM was calling me and asking about my email regarding my experience with the shelter.

After I explained what had happened, the director told me the supervisor I spoke with was a senior officer and knows the laws and rules. What I was asking for is a survive they provide. And he admitted that whay happened was wrong. But, more than likely, it is something that happens there more often and people don't know what to do.

One thing I learned about the situation is, that Bradshaw and TEAM don't support that all animals matter. Only the ones they pick and choose. And when it is convenient with managers and their precious time. If an animal is suffering, they will allow it. But, if a general public person abuses an animal, we get ticketed, fined, imprisoned and so on. The whole situation disgusted me. The bottom dollar is all that matters at...

Unfortunately, I have to share a horrible experience with this shelter. We have been looking to adopt a dog for the last month or so and have been making trips to this shelter to look at dogs. We live about 40 minutes away so it's not close to us by any means. We went down one day to look at dogs on July 27th and found interest in a dog there. We instantly fell in love with him and had a connection. We asked the front desk if we could adopt him and they said no, he has a microchip, and we have notified the owner and if he isn't picked up, he will be available on August 6th. On August 1st, we visited again because we were very interested in fostering or adopting and were curious if he would still be there. He was still there. The front desk said August 6th he will be available, get here early as possible because people wait outside to adopt dogs. On August 6th, we were at the shelter at 10:30am, and stood outside for an hour and a half to adopt this dog. We went to the front desk and asked to adopt him and they said oh, sorry you can't, he's being held under evaluation for an eye issue. They might have to remove his eye so he isn't available for foster or adoption. They told me to call a 311 line to ask for his updates to see when he would become available. We even asked about doing a pre-adoption or taking my information to call when he was available and they said no. I called literally daily, and nobody could tell me anything. They were no help at all. I was finally forwarded to the head of Kennel operations. On August 8th, the head of kennel operations called me back and said he was evaluated, but still not available for foster or adoption. He needed an eye surgery (the eye in fact did not have to be removed, so nobody had a clue about what was going on), treatment for ear infection, upper respiratory infection, and treatment for a growth on his foot. He would need follow up care after the surgery first and then he would be made available. But they had no surgery date and told me to keep checking back with the 311 line. We went again on August 11th to visit him and asked if we could adopt or foster, again they told us they same thing, absolutely not due to him needing surgery and treatment. We visited again the day after on August 12th and asked again, and proceeded to be told no, due to needing surgery and they he was still under evaluation. I continued to call 311 with no assistance. We went to visit again on August 15th to ask the front desk to foster or adopt, to find out that on August 12th he was placed in a foster home to later be adopted. We were absolutely shocked and livid. After visiting the shelter 6 times, and calling 311 daily, with each response being "no, he is not available for fostering or adoption due to needing surgery" to find out that in fact, someone else was able to foster to adopt him BEFORE any of the treatment for infection or surgery was done!! Someone messed up big time here and I hope that nobody else has to endure the pain that we did after falling in love with his dog and being so patient and persistent about our interest in him. There were a few staff members are the front desk that were very kind and helpful and really felt terrible for the mistake. It was a terrible experience for us and I am sad to say that this place does NOT have their ducks in a row! Nobody could tell us how this happened and how this other person was able to foster to adopt this dog after we had been told no for 3 weeks. Absolutely terrible, and a horrible way to go...

I didn't have the best experience dropping off a stray before actual operating hours recently, but I partly chalk that up to the staff/volunteers doing what is sometimes a thankless job.

We arrived two hours before the shelter was to actually open, but were informed by the city 311 dispatcher the night before that the shelter has volunteers there to intake, we just needed to get to the right door and knock. Upon arrival, we asked someone that was at the small dog patio where we could do a stray intake and we were helpfully directed to the right door.

We provide the dog's background to the woman that answered the door and she came back with a microchip scanner, obtained the number, and went back inside to look up the info. (I had actually had the dog's chip read by VCA the afternoon before and the registration came back with Sac County Animal Services.) Well, the woman comes back and says the chip is not registered at all - which is weird.

The staff/woman agrees to intake the pup even though where we found him was right at the border of City of Sac and Sac County. Had the dog been registered to City of Sac, we would have had to take the pup to Front Street - which is understandable. But up until that point, she gave the impression she shelter wouldn't take the dog, end of story.

So the intake process was not smooth, likely due to shelter not being open yet. But it was initial discussion, chip reading, chip results, intake form fill out, give ID, give form, received ID back - with the staff/volunteer having to close the door and come back for each item. Finally I was able to walk the dog into the shelter and into an intake kennel. I wish the intake process was more streamlined - and it probably is when the shelter is actually open.

I was given a post-it note with the dog's shelter ID and when he would be available to adopt after the 10-day stray hold. The woman did seem much nicer after seeing that I was potentially willing to adopt. Maybe she was just initially a bit annoyed that I was there before hours and just trying to dump a dog.

Like I said, staff/volunteers there work a hard job that see an endless stream of unwanted and sometimes abused/neglected animals, hoping to make a difference and get them adopted out to a forever home. That's why this is a 5* review despite the experience.

So part of this review is cathartic - me having to check my annoyance with the intake process along with us feeling a bit guilty on not being able to find the owners who let a dog wander the streets with a collar but dragging a leash for at least a couple of days according to neighbors, and us not being able...