Multnomah County Animal Services — Local services in Troutdale

4/10/24 0 stars I live in an RV park.... my neighbor's trailer is probably 10 to 12 ft from my living room/bedroom window. Last summer he got a 10 week old German Shepherd puppy to live in the trailer with him, while he had a broken foot. That was his excuse for never taking the puppy for a walk. He got an adult size dog crate to put inside his small trailer for the puppy to be locked in while he was gone. I called Animal Control three times before the puppy was 5 months old due to him beating on the dog and screaming at it. The Animal control officer came out and determined that the puppy was happy and healthy and actually yelled at me over the phone for calling him. I was also complaining about the puppy being left in the crate for up to 15 hours a day with no food or water or a place to pee. I could hear the puppy crying in the afternoon for hours . Animal control officer informed me the dog only needed to be fed and watered once a day. ONCE A DAY! IT'S A PUPPY!! Adult dogs need to be fed twice a day atleast if you are compassionate at all. I then called the director at Multnomah County animal control, who was very rude to me on the phone, she told me there was no ordinance for the amount of time a dog could be left in a crate, as long as the dog can stand up turn around and lay down, that's all they needed.

This poor dog has spent 7 months in that crate. This man leaves for work at 6:30 in the morning and doesn't return sometimes until 7:00 or 8:00 at night. Sometimes he comes home long enough to let the dog out to potty and then he leaves for another six or seven hours. For the last 2 weeks the dog has startedbarking/howling/yiping/crying from 6:30 a.m. until 8:00 a.m. sometimes until 9:30 a.m.. I do not get up that early and I have trouble sleeping so once I'm awake I cannot go back to sleep. Multnomah County makes it absolutely impossible to do anything about this. You have something you're supposed to download....I don't have a computer or a printer..... you're supposed to take video of the dog...I can't do this, the dog is inside a trailer, inside the crate....I also don't have any way to take a video and send to them. I have taken sound recordings of this dog barkin, but I have no way to send that to them either. They will not discuss this with you on the phone. All the staff and the director at the facility are extremely rude and hostile. All I know is this poor dog has been locked in a crate for the first 7 months of his life....he goes outside to go to the bathroom and goes back in the trailer. The man never takes him anywhere not even for a walk. The dog does not know his name or any commands and the man frequently makes him cry. Multnomah County animal control does not see this as a problem.

Animal Control Officers requirement for employment is the equivalent of a GED and some experience with animals. They don't have to have any specialized training or education at all. They make $65,000 a year.

Let that sink in.

Somebody needs to revamp...

Multnomah County taxpayers should be questioning the leadership here. Especially animal care and animal health directors. After working there 10 months I saw enough. "Apathy" is what I'd call the theme there. It is grossly understaffed and too small, and leadership doesn't seem to care about doing anything but collecting their pension. They literally adopt to ANYONE. ANYONE. The rate of dogs and cats coming back after adoption is at least 50% if not more. Almost none of the animals are spayed or neutered before adoption and often the adopters, looking for a cheap pet, don't follow through and get them altered, so they have more puppies and kittens, thus creating an endless loop of homeless animals. I tried to stick up for this place because many people trash talk this place. It's not the lower employees. They work very hard, get mauled and injured regularly caring for dangerous pets, and work tirelessly to do what they can. But, leadership is deaf to any suggestions from staff and downright apathetic. "We don't have the money" or "we can't get approval" is the pat answer. The director of animal care at the time, Andrew Mathias, literally told me,"Education is discrimination" and "we're here to serve people not animals " What!? It's a culture of ignorance. This shelter is easily decades behind other metropolitan areas in its practices. They literally adopt to people without homes. Think about this. These same people can't afford veterinary care or food. We often get those same pets back as strays. Again, creating a Neverending loop. I personally know people that have adopted intact dogs from there and intentionally bred them and sold the puppies. (They became clients where I currently work and they told me about their scam, not knowing I used to work there) Taxpayers should be storming Multnomah County legislature because this place us grossly mismanaged and anyone that suggests improvements are slowly pushed out...

I called this place after my neighbor passed away... It was literally my last option, I had even called the police for help and their TAPS program gave me tons of places to call and no one would help... I called the shelter and let them know I had a dog who's owner had just passed and I was injured could barely walk and this dog was going to suffer if it stayed with me... They did nothing, the lady talked to me like an idiot and when I started crying and having a panic attack out of desperation she said she'd check with the manager... I again was denied help... I was told to call a few other places, those places were places I had already called or places that just told me to send them an application online and they would get back to me... (this was before Thanksgiving and I have still not gotten any responses from any of the rehoming organizations)...

I called back because my injury was so bad I literally could not walk, I fell and had to drag myself across my carpet in tears to get on the sofa and I knew I couldn't take care of the dog, I was ready to call 911 because my pain was so bad and this poor dog was locked in my bathroom because i couldn't walk to get him outside to potty... I still got denied... This place has helped me in the past, I've always brought lost kittens and hurt strays here but this one time I was treated like I was stupid and wasting their time...

Thank God for Anthony Mcmichael from Instinct pest control based out of hillsboro, I told him what was going on while they were at my apartment complex doing work and he took the dog even knowing his history and that he wouldn't be easy to deal with... he's now got the best home, new fur baby siblings and is well taken care of...

Thanks for nothing to this place and if you need help don't come here... I was desperate and let them know that this animal would suffer if he had to stay with me and for a place that says they care about...