Martinez Animal Shelter

One of the cleaner shelters I’ve been to. They have a pretty big selection of both cats and dogs.

I think it’s important to adopt a pet who is in need of a home, where ever they come from. I was really pleased to see how clean and busy the Martinez Shelter was. The staff was helpful and kind, even though they were very busy that day. I am so relieved for all the people whom work at the shelter, as I can only imagine how difficult that ‘job’ may be. Dealing with worried and upset people trying to claim their pets that have been picked up, people wanting to adopt pets, the number of pets, the ever constant ‘needs’ of everyone (pets and people) must be constantly challenging to say the least! In addition, it seemed such a nominal fee to adopt a dog, when it must cost a small fortune to run that facility! My dog came spayed, chipped, shots and licensed. For all they have to do (that I’m aware and that I’m unaware) I think they do it all pretty darn efficient and with a sense of compassion. This is my story…
Until about 2 years ago I hadn’t been to the ‘pound’ in maybe 20 years. Since then they have really made some great improvements! After about 10 years without a pet, it was time to look for a companion. I saw a picture of a small dog about 9 months old, Pupperoni, on their website who had been there for about 3 weeks. I decided to go check her out. The facility is way more organized than it used to be, and didn’t have that ‘pound’ feel like it used to. It was busy with potential adoptees and volunteers! Made me feel like there were so many more people with the same goal in mind — finding homes for these pets people don’t care enough about to love and protect! I looked through the kennel rooms and didn’t see her, so I waited in line to ask at the counter if she had been adopted. Turned out she had come down with kennel cough and was in the ‘sick ward’. They took me through the back where I could see her. All they knew about her is she was picked up wandering in a field in Pittsburg. I liked her immediately; she was curious, sweet, calm, friendly, polite. I wanted a second opinion, so I went home to return the next day, Sunday, to bring a friend and meet her. When I got home I was beginning to wish I had just adopted her and not waited, then began to worry someone else was going to snatch her up. So, I was there early for their ‘mobile adoption’ on Sundays, and was first in line. I made it in time to adopt her! It’s been 2 years and she’s been a great dog! In those two years, I’ve had time to get to know her and all she has to ‘tell’ and teach me. Turned out, she had a broken leg that wasn’t tended to and healed. As long as her weight is in check, she uses it without issue (and why it went unnoticed). And, her tail had been broken and healed, too. It was determined after a cat scan that her leg injury was between 3 and 6 months of age. I can’t imagine her first few months of life… makes me so sad for her, and happy that I have her now. She has been a great dog! When I’m ready to look again, I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on ‘the pound’!

I haven’t been successful in actually adopting a dog from them, but I have dealt with the guys who respond to complaints or pick up loose animals. I think the staff is helpful & their request are reasonable.
Only thing is it’s very hard to actually get a dog from them because of the process they use… can’t put down deposit (or pay completely) until dog available following hold. Thus, you have to call in at least twice daily to see if dog has been evaluated… then, be lucky enough to be first one at shelter to secure dog. It’s challenging.

I wish I could give this place no stars. My daughter adopted a kitten here a month ago. I brought him back for a recheck because he had scabs on his head that I thought might be ringworm and they said it wasn’t and sent us home. Then I got ringworm from the cat, then my kids got it. So I took him back again for a recheck and they said they didn’t think it was ringworm but gave him a lime sulfur dip anyway because I insisted it was. Then our ringworm got worse so I took him to our regular vet who said yep it was ringworm so now he’s on anti fungal pills but it’s too late because now my other cat who is 12 has it. So $ 290 later I have a house full of ringworm with two cats in quarantine because they don’t adequately check their animals. If you adopt from here you can expect long lines and the rechecks are a joke. They don’t want to spend any money or time on the animals once they are adopted out. Not to mention another kitten we got from here had pink eye that they didn’t notice until we were about to take him home. Luckily that didn’t spread to our other cat.

I adopted a beautiful German Shepard/​Husky mix from CCASD, the staff and volunteers were knowledgable, friendly and helpful.
They explained the adoption process and made sure that I understood the commitment! We played in the play yard with the dog and decided to adopt him! I’d definitely recommend adopting from Martinez, not only are you saving life’s but you are gaining a best friend.

The place is far from perfect but that is besides the point. This is our county shelter. If you truly care about animals you will do your part to make sure they don’t go there in the first place. THERE ARE NOT ENOUGH HOMES FOR ALL OF THE PUPPIES AND KITTENS BORN EACH DAY. Think about that fact for a minute. Don’t be careless, don’t be lazy, don’t be cheap, Don’t fool yourself into believing your one litter is ok because it is not ok. Be responsible and spay and neuter your pet.
If your pet does go missing GO DOWN to the shelter in person and search for your pet immediately. Don’t just call and risk somebody elses mis– identification. If you love your pet make an effort. Quit complaining. Here is a news flash, the longer you leave your dog in there, the more it costs to get him out. There is a daily charge. Additionally your pet is taking up a spot that another animal could be using thereby causing another to be euthanized.
I realize some people feel like the customer service isn’t quite up to par… All I can say is get over it. this isn’t Nordstroms. It is frigigin animal control. These people have the hardest job in the world. And all of the animals that have to be put down are euthanized because of all of the idiot pet owners who let there animals breed and run loose.
Swallow your pride and adopt your next pet from the shelter,

so far my experience with this business has been the most horrible and heart breaking time in my life. My dog bruiser who is a pit and german shepard mix, was stolen from my place of residence by someone, who proceeded to tie him up to a pole ouside of mc donalds, well they came and picked him up, septhember 18ith it is now in October and they want me to pay them $ 618 dollars. we have tried several times to get him back and each time the lady at the front gave us some reason that we couldn’t get him. she even lied to us and told us that he wasn’t going up for adoption because he all of a sudden became aggressive and snipped at a volunteer. she even went as far as to tell us that we had to pay $ 50 to them to surrender my dog to them and then they would release him to a friend of our choice that we were to bring in… when in reality her plan was to get us to surrender him so that she can deny my friend the dog and have him put down cuz he is a pitbull… well you know what? I lost my dog because of it and I am seriously going to try and get a lawsuit going against this animal shelter… I DONT RECCOMMEND THIS PLACE, NOT EVEN TO SOMEONE I HATE WOULD I RECCOMMEND THIS PLACE.

The experience here is exhausting. Most, not all, of the staff doesn’t care about you adopting. I was being directed to large pit bull mix dogs when I had explained that I wanted small dogs. There was no organization. After choosing, I went to pay and was told about a sale on cat adoptions. Home for less than a week and I see a notification on fb that dogs are now on sale. I would have saved hundreds and when I called, the person I spoke with clearly wasn’t concerned.

Thank you for making the process of adopting Princes enjoyable and easy. She is very sweet and loving. She has a playmate at home and enjoys her life to the fullest.
Everyone who helped us during this process –big thank you. The mobile adoption crew — you rock! So helpful and pleasant to work with. I understand you can’t save every animal and it breaks my heart to know that– but the work you do to save that ones you can has to matter.

This place doesn’t deserve one star! They need a new management system, one where they actually give a damn about animals! They refuse to release animals to their rightful owners! They lie and they hang up in your face. My dog has never ran away before but sadly he did less than a week ago. I get a call about him and they refuse to release information to. I call them back to check in and now I find out I have to pay over $ 400 my dog I’ve had for 5 ½ year then they hang up in while I’m in mid! I thought shelters were to help strays find homes & reconnect lost animals to their owners. My poor dog is stolen from me!

THEY REFUSE TO ENFORCE THE CALIFORNIA ANTI TETHER LAW! There is a lady in Pinole who ties up her chihuahuas for hours and hours and hours and leaves them in the hot sun in her font yard. They get entangled with each other and the bushes. There have been many neighbor complaints to Martinez Animal Control and Pinole Animal Control. This same lady was busted several years ago for letting the same two dogs roam the neighborhood. They cite some three hour rule but the rule doesn’t apply here. The rule only allows you to tie up your dogs to perform a temporary task. She is not performing a temporary task every single day and besides she leaves them out there way longer than three hours. Come on Martinez Animal Control do your job and protect these dogs. Follow the law and start enforcing the California Anti Tether law. The Pinole Branch won’t do a thing either.

Contra Costa Animal Control has internal policies that are NOT followed so the line is always long; they won’t release an animal to its owner unless they pay the ransom (& if they can’t afford it the animal is euthanized). They received $ 20,000 for dental work and used it on 20 dogs, pretty expensive for a «shelter». It almost seems as if they WANT to kill the animals. Rescues are told to «do the right thing»!! I’m not even talking about the other animals kept there — bunnies, pigs, horses. They don’t even have a comment page on FB page because of the complaints! Can you imagine the hypocrisy?
HYPOCRITES VOLUNTEER AT CCAS — IF THEY LOSE THEIR VOLUNTEERS, THEIR POLICIES WILL HAVE TO CHANGE FOR THE BETTER!

Terrible Customer service/​phone staff. The lady that responds to phone calls has no idea on anything that is going on with the animals/​animal control officers and lies about information. I asked to speak to her supervisor and was told the complete opposite of what the customer care rep was saying. An employee needs to be trained upon hire.

Although sometimes the shelter employees and volunteers have different information this shelter provided an over all great experience during our adoption process.
My fiancé and I spent several weeks searching for the perfect dog to add to our family. The volunteers were always so friendly and went out of their way to answer any questions I had. We found a 6 months on dog who I just knew was absolutely perfect. I was able to meet with her in one of the outside areas, and knew I had to bring her home. We adopted her on a Friday and she was spayed Monday. We picked her up Tuesday and she’s already the best decision we’ve ever made… along with our other dog of course :)
Adopt for here. These dogs need you! Just make sure you ask the front desk about availability dates, rather than just the volunteer desk.

I don’t believe any animal shelter should be shamed if they are saving the lives of animals. This is a very nice, clean facility. However, on Valentine’s day I went in looking for a dog to adopt. I didn’t find «the one» but did see a shelter worker (or volunteer) squirt a small, scared dog with a hose while cleaning out the kennels, on purpose, because it wouldn’t come to him when he was calling it. I went to the shelter in Pinole and ended up finding the new love of my life. She needed to be transferred to Martinez for her spay surgery. The day before I was scheduled to pick her up they called me to tell me she had a small cold and would have to reschedule the surgery and that I could take her home until then. I went to pick her up, and she had way more then a small cold. They sent me home with a dog with kennel cough knowing I have a senior dog at home who can’t afford to get sick. Kennel cough can spark from a number of many different viruses so bordatella (sp?) shots aren’t a for sure thing. Long story short, I did not adopt a sick dog. The dog got sick while in Marteniez. How she got sick? I have no idea. I’ve been staying with her in a motel while she gets better to keep her away from my senior dog. It’s turned out to be a very expensive ordeal between vet care and keeping my other dog safe. I am considering paying to have her spayed at my vet instead of taking her back to the shelter for a free spay because I DO NOT want her getting sick again.

See review my review for SF Animal Care and Control…
Most of my cats and dogs come from parking lots, the 3^rd lane of 680, Doha, Qatar, etc. That said, when I adopt an animal, I got to the local Humane Society, SPCA or Animal Care and Control.
If you want a domestic longhair/​shorthair or mutt, save a life and adopt from the organization of your choice. If you want a designer cat or dog who is prone to various inherited conditions and diseases, guess what, they have them too!
Anyone writing nasty (one star) reviews about any of these organizations needs to have their head examined by one of the on-​site vets.
I utilized the their low-​cost microchip vaccination service this weekend. A pleasant experience from beginning to end. I saved $ 300 by getting there at 8:00am on a Saturday morning.
I decided to invest some of the money I saved, by heading next door and investing in new member (s) of our family.

I adopted my 2 wonderful dogs from this shelter. They are the love of my life. Please don’t hesitate to adopt here. Adoption process was a breeze. And before you can take them home, the dogs need to be vaccinated, licensed, and neutered, and they’re ready to go. I had my dogs micro-​chipped here too.
I had my cat neutered, micro chipped, and vaccinated here too for just around $ 90.
We also take our dogs and cat to their clinic for our pets annual vaccinations. Although we need to wake up early and fall in line on a Saturday morning, we save money because the vaccinations here cost less.
When I adopted my 2 dogs, I saw all the dogs in the shelter that needs a home. I feel so bad for all the dogs coz I cannot adopt all of them. Since then I always encourage friends and family to spay/​neuter their pets and also to adopt dogs or cats in the shelter instead of buying one from breeders etc… There are a lot of dogs there that need a home. And it’s heartbreaking to hear that this shelter is a KILL SHELTER too… Yes, they kill perfectly adoptable animals. Instead of giving the animal more time, its more convenient for them to put them down to make space for other dogs and cats coming in the shelter. My heart goes out to all those dogs and cats that didn’t find new homes in time… So please save the animals from this shelter, dont buy but adopt from shelters and please spay and neuter them.
And if you do plan to get a pet… please try to think about it thoroughly. This is a lifelong commitment. Pets can live up to 20 years. Some of the dogs in the shelter were surrendered from pet owners who realized having a pet is not for them. And these dogs have emotions, you can really see the sadness in the eyes of a surrendered dog.

EVERYONE should adopt an animal here! This is a kill shelter, but before you skip my review, let me say that my loss of stars has nothing to do with that. Kill shelters exist because (a)irresponsible people (including legitimate breeders) don’t spay/​neuter their pets and unplanned offspring occurs and (b) irresponsible and uneducated people decide that animal ownership is too much for their situation and they dump their pet. It’s NOT the shelter’s fault they aren’t given a prepaid black amex and told to «save them all». News flash: no kill shelters and rescues cherry pick from the kill shelters the most adoptable (read marketable) animals and charge MUCH more so they can subsequently fund their operations. Pick your poison.
My loss of stars is because this kill shelter has lousy front desk staff in charge of operations. The line is ALWAYS long and lengthy because they either can’t figure out what they’re doing or because they aren’t motivated to handle things in a timely fashion. I’d be sympathetic if they were staffed by volunteers but those particular positions are paid and probably by my taxes. It’s like they don’t WANT to adopt out animals and make the process appealing so more adoptions would occur. I’m also giving a loss of one star to the fact that they adopted a 5 month old kitten to me that had supposedly finished a course of antibiotics and was non contagious and fine. It subsequently got the other two 5 month old kittens I had adopted from them a few days prior (this one still needed to be neutered, hence the later adoption date) sick. All three were put on a basic round of amoxicillin and cured… lucky thing I’m a vet tech! Which brings me to my last complaint: they DON’T test for FELV/FIV…WTF…do you know how many additional lives AND dollars could be saved if testing was done upon entry to the shelter?! The test is cheaper than administering a vaccine to an infected animal and spaying/​neutering it when it’s going to have to be euthanized in the near future (they are incurable and the animal suffers tremendously). Why not test first and euthanize those that ARE infected, allowing you to keep and care for the healthy animals longer (and not expose them)? It doesn’t make sense!
Rant over… we LOVE our the black cats (ALWAYS adopt black animals, it’s statistically proven that they are the least adopted color) and they are healthy, sweet and rodent killing machines. Please bear with the problems this place has and adopt from them anyway, it’s not the animals’ faults, it’s a human’s.

We decided that we needed another living being in our household and our son said he wanted a bird. After some looking into it, I decided that a bird would be a huge pain.
After visiting a good friend in Boston who had an adorable and calm cat, we convinced our son that a nice, mellow cat would be a good thing. He agreed and we went looking.
First stop was Petco in Walnut Creek, but they only had kittens. I had visions of my expensive drapes being clawed to death so we started to get worried. Anyway, the woman there suggested that if we wanted a nice older cat to go Animal Rescue in Martinez.
We drove there and found so many beautiful cats that were exactly what we were looking for (I wish we could have adopted more!). My son noticed a very mellow yellow fellow in the corner and it was love at first sight. The workers there couldn’t have been more helpful and seemed genuinely grateful that we were adopting a cat. They walked us through the process, let us spend some time with Sebastian, and then took him to get his shots.
They gave us a carrier and we took Sebastian home where’s he’s been the missing piece we were looking for for about a month. He’s perfectly fit into our house and my son couldn’t be happier.

Would like to give them negative stars… especially what I just read about being a kill shelter… This place was depressing… All employees except one was very unfriendly and one guy with a blonde pony tail would be fired immediately if I was managing this facility. County workers are exempt I guess… The customer service was horrendous and we went in to save a dog by adopting. I feel horrible for the animals they stand little chance with these people as their champions… The workers we dealt with we either not trained or indifferent and in the case of the tool with the pony tail. flat out beligerant… I am going to try to send my experience to some level of management at the county. hope it does something but won’t hold my breathe… so sad!!!