Licking County Humane Society — Local services in Union Township

The Licking County Humane Society claims that they are all about the love and care for pets. This is false. On more than one occasion they have been known to not approve an application where the end result would have been a dog in a happy home and not in a shelter. They then ask for money because they are so full. Against our gut because of their reputation, we attempted to take our puppy to their clinic to have her spayed and my husband scheduled for the incorrect date. She will be with a sitter at that time and we want her to be comfortable. Rather than letting us reschedule the date so that we can make sure she is comfortable the days after surgery, they refuse unless we pay for a second appointment. Claiming that it is clear on the paperwork and they wouldn't be able to fill the spot. Which spoiler...it is not and the filling a spot is ridiculous. Their spots fill ridiculously fast, not to mention we just scheduled this YESTERDAY. What were they going to do with the spot then? It says that they will not reschedule "IF". We do not fall under any of that criteria. Sounds like they really care about the pup, huh? They care about their money making ability. Period. Really frustrating that a business that should be centered around the animal is centered around the almighty dollar.

I see your response to my review...and I can't respond there so I am editing here. I did not call to cancel my appointment. I called to reschedule it. I have the paperwork. I know what it says. It says no reschedule "IF". We did not meet any of the "if" criteria at that time. We did not cancel and we were not planning to no show. (We did after all of this craziness.) No where does it say that there will be no reschedule for any reason. There were conditions to the no reschedule that at the time we did not meet. You should change the language on your paperwork to simply no reschedules. I am also aware of what you said as you talked down to me, over me, and in the end hung up on me when you didn't like what I had to say and kept proving my point. I don't plan on calling again to tell you the same things. What is done is done. Your customer service needs work. And if you cared about the animals you would have rescheduled, but you don't and that has been proven in more cases than just this one. You care about holding onto your dollar. Which you did since I will not be asking for a refund because we now meet the criteria to not be refunded/rescheduled as we did not show up for the appointment because we will never support this business in any way again. Again, you could have filled the spot. You have posted for a last minute spot before and it gets filled. What were you going to do if my husband didn't stop on Sunday and take that spot? You would have posted about having spots. All of that needing to pay...

Such a DISAPPOINTING experience at the Licking County Humane Society!

Today, my mother came from Zanesville to Newark because she was told they had several Yorkies available for adoption. After some discussion with one of the employees, she was told she wasn’t a good fit to adopt a Yorkie! Excuses were given (pathetic and frankly age biased as they were) that Yorkies are very energetic, bark a lot, and it had been a while since she had owned a dog, etc… Then they offered up an Australian Shepherd instead!

One does not have to be a genius, or even college educated, to know that an Australian Shepherd is MUCH more active and harder to handle than a Yorkie. My mother is in her 70’s and the dog is for her 35 year old son (my brother) and yes, she told them this information.

My mother is active, goes to the gym, attends church, takes care of her home, is financially secure, etc…. She is by NO MEANS unable to care for a dog, especially a Yorkie. She is one of the kindest people you could ever meet and if they were concerned, they could’ve asked for references.

It’s unfathomable to me that someone could arrive at the shelter offering a GOOD, SECURE, LOVING home for ANY dog, only to be told “NO, you aren’t good enough”. I suspect that since none of the Yorkies are listed on their website (only a few hours later), there is a “system” in place there that allows for favoritism of certain breeds (saving them for certain people).

Every dog deserves a good home! Today, you let one slip through your fingers, and you were too deficient in your capabilities to recognize it!!!

What you did today was embolden the illegal puppy mill “industry.” Thankfully, our family is properly educated on this issue, and we will continue to search for a rescue, but if this is how this shelter conducts business, is it any wonder why some of them have a thriving business. A thriving business at the expense of innocent animals.

Someone came to your shelter with nothing but love and care in their heart and you soured them on adoption. As a lifetime supporter of the ASPCA and a dog mom of two rescues myself, I...

I used to love this shelter when I was younger. My mother and I went all the time just to try and find an animal that we could give a forever home... then came 2018. My father was given a pitbull mix from my best friend at the time. We took care of her as much as we could, but unfortunately she was around 3 years old and we could not manage her high energy levels and her destructive behaviors, we did attempt to train her for months before deciding to surrender her as we knew she could be placed in a better home where she would be given a far better life. I never signed any papers regarding this matter, as I was a minor at the time and mentioned my name maybe once in the surrendering conversation. Fast forward to 2021, when I attempted to adopt a cat from the shelter. I was in contact for about a month regarding a specific cat, and up until the end of that month everything had been deemed as okay, and we were going through the process to visit and adopt the cat. I suddenly received a call, with a staff member informing me that since I had surrendered an animal previously, I was not eligible to adopt an animal from this shelter. I was a minor at the time of surrender, never signed any documents, provided ID or any form of identifiers besides my name. The surrender of the animal wasn't even my choice, in fact I had begged my father to keep the lovely pit mix. I am beyond dissapointed thar they would hold a minor accountable for living in someone else's home. Therefore not having any say in the matter. I am sad to say I will never visit this shelter again, but still appaled by the behavior and argumentative nature of the staff over that phone call when I attempted to explain all of this to them. I got the lovely "that doesn't matter" that lots of "adults" give to people younger than them. Never again will I put up with being held accountable for something I had no control over. I hope the staff will learn from this and never do that to a child again. You wouldn't hold ab12 year old accountable for their parents decisions. So why would you do it to ANY...