My family and I had been searching for a Rottweiler to adopt since our 8 year old pup just passed unexpectedly. This is the third female Rottweiler in our family. Our first passed around three, she had cancer and it was tragic. Our current Rottweiler is 4 years old now and she's our whole world. The sweetest little love bug, much like our other two. While perusing Facebook, we came across an application for a young 1 year old female Rottweiler. This Rotty had been abandoned and left outside.
We have never been through the process of adopting through a shelter. Granted, we did call, and they stated we couldn't just come and pick her up and that a meeting would have to be scheduled. We filled out the application but drove almost an hour one way, to see if there's anyway we could possibly meet her. We had full knowledge and understanding that we couldn't take the dog, and that the application process needed to be fulfilled. We love Rottweilers so much, if there was any chance to just meet this beautiful girl, we wanted to see her. Again as I stated before, we're completely new to this process.
When we arrived we were greeted, not very nicely, by one of the staff members. We explained our situation and asked if there was any possible way of meeting the pup. Staff was rude, unprofessional, and stated the dog needed to "rest", and that there was no possibility of even seeing her. If that's the way things are done, that's fine, and we need to respect how these shelters do business.
What shocked us was the horrendous email we received after we got home. The email reprimanded us for showing up at the shelter unannounced, like we were some evil abusive people. The email brazenly stated to "NOT" contact any members of the staff because they were "upset" that we showed up. We also got yelled at for bringing our sweet Rottweiler with us. We always travel with our dog... she comes in the car with us everywhere. It was stated that bringing another dog (our dog never even got out of our car) is "NEVER" the protocol. There's no information about this anywhere on the website, nor where we ever told this until we got this nasty email.
It says , "by appointment only", on their website but again, post-covid, you have no idea who's actually doing real appointments or walk-ins and if there's a chance to rescue a dog that needs help, you take it.
All of their procedures sound reasonable. The fact is that the way they handled this situation was disgusting and unprofessional. A great family, who has the means and funds to rescue a dog, especially a Rottweiler that's such a difficult and misunderstood breed, was turned away and treated like trash because we didn't follow protocols that we didn't even know were in place. We were told our application wouldn't even be processed.
Again, we hold no ill will to the procedures of the shelter, I'm sure they are put in place for very important reasons. But to patronize and scold a young family trying to rescue an animal is a disgusting and unprofessional way to conduct this organization.
I would never discourage any individuals from adopting animals from any shelter. I am however ashamed and simply astounded at the unprofessionalism and disregard for human dignity and respect from staff members. Don't use this shelter as your first choice. read more