St Joseph Animal Services — Local services in Saint Joseph

We recently adopted our sweet white cat Alby, from the St Joseph Animal Control/Shelter. I’d like to share my experience so far. I went to meet Alby on a Thursday (2 weeks ago) he was a beautiful kitten, and was friendly. Looking at him you wouldn’t think there was any health issues with him. I was told once we adopted him he would go to the doctor to the follow day for his vaccinations and neutered. This was very strange for me since we have adopted 2 cats and a dog from shelters, and they are always examined and fixed upon adoption. But I thought no big deal, I’ll pick him up tomorrow and all will be fine. I spoke to the lady who was handling him at animal control and ask her

“Does he have any health issues?”

Her answer, “ He was checked and none that we see. He seems healthy and ready to go to a home.”

I paid for him and got the info to pick him up the next evening at a Vets office in town. Upon picking him up the vet tech told us that surgery went well and he is all good. She followed with,

“He is making an odd sound when he breathes . We checked his lungs and heart and all seemed good. I would suggest getting an X-ray in the future if it doesn’t subside. It could just be he is stressed and nervous about the new surroundings.”

This all made sense to me and I decided within the next week if it didn’t go away I would get an X-ray for him. It never went away. And with us being around him 100% of the time we could tell he had some problems. He seemed like he was always out of breath and exhausted. A couple days after I called a vet that a friend recommended and scheduled an X-ray for him.

Today was that X-ray. Upon arriving to this vet, they immediately knew something wasn’t right. A kitten shouldn’t be breathing like that. He was taken back and the vet examined him and he followed with,

“He is in critical condition. He has bad enamel on his teeth, leaky eyes and a temperature. He is getting the X-ray now but he is really sick.”

Obviously I’m worried and don’t know what to expect. And what is horrible he has looked like this since I FIRST SAW HIM AT THE SHELTER. Someone at the shelter should have known he wasn’t ok, that’s their job! Someone at the first vet should have seen the urgency he needed! Both failed.

The vet came back and said,

“Both of his lungs are collapsed and I’m not sure how he is even alive right now. He has a pocket of air in his chest from an infection or virus that is not letting his lung fully inflate and heal. He is likely in a great deal of pain.”

I start sobbing. Even though we have only known this little kitten for a couple weeks, he love him! And want the best for him. The vet tells me that he is going to do a round of antibiotics for a week and see him again in 7 days. If he hasn’t made an improvement by then, then we need to look at his quality of life.

Yes that planned sucks because I potentially loose our kitten but I’d rather he be out of pain.

The St Joseph Animal Control FAILED us and this cat. Their system for adoptions is outrageous.

“They can not guarantee the temperament or health of any animal up for adoption.”

This is what I was told when I called asking how they could release a cat in such dire need of health professionals. I “signed” a form stating this. (Turns out in my copy I never actually signed this, which leads me to believe I was never told this either.)

The whole point in this post is to bring light to the fact that the adoption system at St Joseph Animal Control/Shelter is horrible, and shouldn’t be trusted. Adopt an animal from there and days after getting them home they could be dead or aggressive. But it’s not the shelters fault.

I hope that no one has to go through this with their newly adopted pet, and I hope this information is shared so that more people are informed about the outrageous adoption system the St Joseph Animal Control/Shelter is...

After grieving the passing of my 19 year old cat for the last 4 months I worked up the courage to look for a new kitty on the Petfinder site, After all there are millions of animals that are homeless and why not try to do the right thing, I happened to find a cat very quickly that seemed like a good match and I called the shelter to ask about the process for adoption on a Friday. I spoke to a very pleasant and caring woman by the name of Beth who was very nice and no doubt has a love for animals. Beth instructed me to complete an application but also told me that the kitty would not be ready for a little while because he had not yet been to the vet and also needed to gain weight before he was "ready" but I was assured that my application was received and that I was the first person to apply for that cat.. I was told that I could likely coordinate to pick him up from the vet once he was "ready". I asked Beth if I could come to the shelter the next day (Saturday) so I could actually see the cat in person since the picture was very blurry and so that my husband could meet the cat. Beth assured me that this would be no problem and I was very excited that I would meet my new friend the next day. The next day I coerced my husband to drive the 85 miles to the shelter on his day off based on that conversation. We both happily walked into the shelter to meet our possible new friend "blue moon" the cat. We were met by a very NASTY woman with glasses and fake blue hair, who informed me that "the cat is not ready"and that is why they did not call me (as if she was talking to a stupid person) and told me I could not even see the cat because he was not ready. I told her about my conversation with Beth and she stated " oh that is not one of our regular people" essentially throwing her co-worker under the bus. I tried very nicely to explain to her that we just drove 85 miles and asked if we could please just see what the cat looked like if we promised not to touch him. That question seemed to really make her mad and she made a very hateful face at me and told me that I could not. There was a young man at the desk next to this ill mannered woman that took pity on us and let us "look" at the cat for 10 seconds. I was polite to the young man and the evil woman and on our way out and still believed that my adoption application was valid and assumed the process was what Beth originally told me. After we came home I noticed that the picture of blue moon was gone from the site and when I called Monday, I once again spoke to Beth who told me that my application was no longer active since blue moon was not ready. I was instructed to call back in a week to check on his weight so that I could resubmit my application once he was available, still believing that we may be able to adopt this cat. 10 days later I called and was informed that blue moon was now in a foster home and that the foster mom had "first dibs" and that I should not count on adopting this cat because his foster mom would surely adopt him. I believe the blue haired woman revoked my application because I made her mad by asking to see the cat and because this foster mom that suddenly appeared out of nowhere was probably one of her friends. I have spent the time and effort to write this long review because I wanted the manager of this facility to know how terrible and insensitive this woman was to good person trying to do the right thing for a homeless animal. I would not let that woman flip burgers at McDonalds or haul trash. Those poor animals do not have a chance because they are at the mercy of people like her. The blue haired lady should re-examine her priorities and get a job appropriate for her...

In the long run, I have always supported the shelter & the work they try to do, despite having one bad experience with a cremation. (staff was very cold & unprofessional) Today's experience led me to leave a review. For context: across from my house is a three story apartment building. It is currently empty and being renovated in some way. In the neighborhood there has been a stray mother cat and three kittens. Today I went to my car & heard desperate meowing. I was horrified to see the mother cat leaning out of a second story window above a sheer drop. On a third story balcony was one of the kittens. My assumption is that they entered while people were working in the building yesterday (Friday) & now they are locked in and separated. The officer I spoke with was understanding, professional & explained that all he could legally do is leave a note. I understood completely and was thankful for the help. The officer who arrived knew nothing of the situation. When I explained he simply (and with a rude tone) asked what I expected him to do about it. When I repeated what the previous officer had said, he just looked at me, wordless. Eventually he said that the renovators would discover the cats on Monday. (despite the fact they didn't notice locking them in Friday) I told him I would be happy to write the note myself, that I'd hoped something official would've had more impact and thanked him for his time. Clearly put out, he finally said he would leave something, and surprisingly did. At that point I left the situation, feeling very disappointed. I understood the legal restrictions, but to be unwilling to do the bare minimum of your job.... Pretty sad. I pity all cats...