Mary S. Roberts Pet Adoption Center — Local services in Riverside

Before visiting this Pet Adoption Center, I had called inquiring about an specific dog, and talk to a young lady: Ashley, I explained to her that we were ready to adopt him, but we lived far, about 1:40 drive, but that we will be there the next day for sure. She explained to me, that they couldn't hold the dog over the phone for me, but that I was welcome to come as soon as they open, and fill out the application and go from there, in any case that the dog has been adopted, we had other choices. We left orange county as soon as my son was done with his soccer game, and we got there a little bit after they had opened, to our surprise, there was one family meeting the dog already, they were interested in adopting him, so we started to look for other dogs, and we learned that one by one, the other dogs that we might have chosen they had been adopted, and there was only Figaro left. We were looking for a young lab puppy since I was looking for a companion for my 7 year old boy. I explained to my son that there might be a chance we couldn't get him, in case the other family ended up adopting him, and even though my son really wanted this particular dog, he understood, and was patient, open to any possibility without loosing hope. We had the option to stayed, fill out the application, and wait for the other family to finally decide if they were going to adopt him or not. And since we don't live near that place at all, we didn't really have anything to loose, so we waited. My son was happy to be looking at different dogs in the meantime, and I started to fill out the application, we were there for a long time, I met almost everyone during that time, and everyone we met was very nice, they heard our story and they were very sympathetic and made our stay pleasant. I was very impressed with the facility, you can tell that they provide their best care for these pets, very clean, and I could see a lot of traffic, different dogs leaving for walks or coming back from being walked, as well as staff members playing with cats. After a long waiting, the other family who wanted to adopt our dog, decided not to, and we were just excited, happy; my son was the happiest. Now we had to be questioned and review the questionnaire with one of the staff members, one by one we reviewed the questions I had answered in the application. This took awhile, because they really take their time, making sure you can provide the best care possible for your new pet. After going through the whole questionnaire, they gave us the news that our application had been accepted. And we now are pet owners of the cutest lab pup named Figaro, who makes us happy everyday and we...

I adopted a cat from them last week. The adoption process was 30 minutes of them asking for more money, in the form of donations to various events, the other 15 minutes was about the pet I was adopting. That pales in comparison to the Spay and Neuter clinic. My kitten hadn't been neutered yet, so I had to leave him there, and his surgery was scheduled for Friday. I was called Friday afternoon to come and pick him up. When I asked how he was they actually said they "didn't know"!

When I arrived to pick him up, there were some young ladies sitting at the bench outside and a mother and son standing by the door. I asked what the procedure was, and they said they had been told there were too many people in the lobby and we had to wait outside. 10 minutes later, a white man and woman pulled up and just started to walk inside. We all said we were waiting, and he just laughed and walked in, waltzed out a few minutes later and said, they all said you could come in. Yes, the minorities standing outside were finally allowed in - too bad they forgot to tell us. I then stood in front of the counter for 22 minutes waiting for someone to acknowledge my presence. The staff was very busy, discussing dinner and weekend plans, to assist me. When they finally got around to me, they told me to sit at the bench and wait.

While I was waiting a lady with the TNR program (with badly dyed red hair) came in with some other women to pick up these animals. The red haired lady began talking VERY LOUDLY about the benefits of tumeric. She stood in front of the hallway, where the animals were being released from, and didn't move, forcing the vet techs to move around her. One tech had a large dog who was still very groggy and between the dog and the tumeric champion, when the tech tried to bring my cat out, she couldn't move around them and almost dropped my kitten.

The tech then tried to give me after care instructions, but I couldn't hear anything over the TNR women who were talking at the TOP of their lungs.

I love my new kitten, but this was the most unprofessional office I have ever seen! Your staff needs customer service...

We came here to adopt a new pet for the family. We received terrible customer service. There's so many positive reviews - it absolutely baffles me. Almost wonder if it's people who didn't actually adopt or interact with the staff. We walked in and the first thing anyone says is sign in (pointing across the room to a clipboard) as the staff continued talking to one another. We were not showed around or advised on what to do. When we finally just went for it and walked in to the cats, we found a kitten to play with. That whole process went really well. They put us in a room and we got to spend as much time as we needed to get to know them. (One Star). We decided on a kitten because he was so calm. We began the process of adopting and the staff was absolutely unprofessional. Adela, the staff member we worked with, would play with the dogs upfront, was on her phone WHILE talking to us, would turn around and talk to the other staff and get lost in conversation when we were sitting right in front of her. She asked for our names 4 times because she kept forgetting who we were, even though our information was on the screen. But here's the cherry on top. Included in their adoptions are several things including 2 vaccinations. I was under the impression it was 2 more... so I asked to clarify that. Instead of her speaking to me, she looked at me. Turned her computer screen. Pointed. And looked right at me with the "Are you stupid?" face. I'm sure you all know exactly what that look - looks like. We did not feel comfortable at all after that. We didn't feel welcomed and strongly demeaned by Adela. So, we finally adopt. We leave. Kitten is acting so weird. We tried everything and it would not eat. We get that being in a new home is very scary and high stress situation. But nothing we did was working and the kitten stopped playing and finally stopped standing up. I called the vet right away and he's doing amazing now! But I also called the shelter right away. 3 times actually. And on the 4th, I left a voicemail... No response to this day. Probably too busy talking...