OBX SPCA Dare County Animal Shelter — Local services in Roanoke Island

I came with a few other co-workers of mine to volunteer to walk the shelter dogs, and was instructed to have the dogs separated while walking so they don't try to fight with each other. We were not told what the minimum distance should be, so me and a friend walked with the dogs at least 10-20 feet from each other, across the road from each other but within speaking distance.

After about 20 minutes of walking, a young female employee ran outside and began shouting at us, saying "Didn't I LITERALLY JUST tell you to separate the dogs?" She continued to loudly berate us for not keeping them far enough apart, but was incapable of telling us what the minimum distance was required between the dogs. She continued angrily questioning us about what our personal definition of "together" and "separate" means, but wouldn't tell us exactly how far apart we needed to be. While we stayed courteous and respectful, she continued to yell at us in an extremely unpleasant and unprofessional manner.

We promised to separate the dogs further, and she goes back inside. About 30 seconds later, after the dogs were a few hundred feet apart from each other, she comes outside once again (angrily, of course) to take away the dog that I was walking, as it was exhibiting poor leash behavior from constantly pulling.

I don't have to volunteer my time to do this. I have three very well behaved dogs of my own and have zero interest in adopting another animal. I'd rather not get shouted down by an employee after giving unclear instructions when I have no obligation whatsoever to be there.

It makes me wonder if they treat their animals as poorly as they treat the humans that come to visit.

UPDATE: I received a reply about this from the SPCA. It was filled with various reasons why dogs need to be separated, which is very reasonable. Except I don't care about that. Animals being separated wasn't what my review was about at all. They completely missed the point. There was no indication that in the future they would clearly state how far apart the animal should be from each other, so I have every reason to believe they will continue down the same path of ambiguous rules and mistreating volunteers. No indication was given that the employee with an explosive temper was wrong for running outside and shouting at us for not following their arbitrary and unclear rules. Just an apology "that it got to this point" - which is not an apology at all. You might as well say "I'm sorry you feel this way."

At this point, apology not accepted. I will discourage people from adopting from...

I was really sad and disappointed by my experience here. My family frequented the previous location and were always greeted by happy and friendly volunteers, excited to have us there to play with and socialize the animals. It quickly became our favorite spca location. Knowing that I was looking to adopt a cat I was excited to come and support them but my day quickly turned around after walking through the doors of the new location. Two women up front were cold and unwelcoming and the only “help” we received from them was being told that we were not allowed to pet or touch the cats. When I asked to take out the cat that I was interested in, the one woman seemed almost annoyed that I was asking and then I was told that since I lived out of state I wasn’t allowed to even see him. I specifically checked ahead of time to make sure it was okay to adopt out of state and the website said “absolutely!” as seen in the attached picture. The woman was extremely rude and just plain mean, she provided no explanation and was dismissive when we told her their website said they adopt out of state. I left feeling not only discouraged but just sad that they no longer care about socializing their animals, cats specifically. I didn’t make this review to discourage anyone from coming because the animals still need homes but based on other low reviews I think this location needs to reevaluate some of the volunteers because this woman was just awful and ruined my previously positive view of the outer banks spca. (The pictures attached show a Facebook post made a few years ago of one of our visits and another of the cat socialization they used to allow, I’m not sure why things have changed so much, and not...

We live in KDH and our lab passed away in October. I started going to walk the dogs just as therapy, and then we decided we may like to get another one after all. We saw a 10 year old lab with laryngeal paralysis, and I was considering adopting her. Unsure if we could do it, I paid her adoption fee in hopes that would help another family. Fast forward, a black lab named Bluey came in, and we were thrilled. We adopted her, and she ended up being a little escape artist and needed a privacy fence. We had her one day and night, and quickly realized she would be better suited for a different family. I was told by the kennel manager when I called back to see if they were upset, that they were and they would not adopt to me again. I was taken back. I took a friend from Virginia Beach last year, and she adopted 2 dogs and thought they would be glad to have a little background on Bluey since we could not accommodate her. I was also calling to see if I could come walk Sissy, and was told no. I was considering paying her adoption fee hoping it would help a new owner with one less expense. To say this is disappointing is an understatement. I have had rescues my entire life and have volunteered for animal shelters for over 20 years. I thought we all had the same goal, to place a dog. This has never been my experience anywhere, nor do I know anyone with this same experience. I can say there is one staff member who is lovely, and that is Remi. This experience is a shame and hurtful, and I have never seen a kennel run in...