San Diego County Animal Shelter

Excellent service to the community,
Called to report dogs left out in rain and officers responded within one hour!!!
Very caring and competent employees!

Awful. I know some of you are thinking that you’ll take your chances, but I definitely wouldn’t. What kind of facility won’t even allow you to look at a cat without filling out an adoption form and then calls your land lord for their pet policy. I am 21 and considered an adult, but not according to this place. All of a sudden I need consent from my mom if I can get a cat? What’s it their business as long as I’m taking care of it? I already own a cat that I bought from another shelter WITHOUT the questions and complications. My question is do you want to give these pets a home or not? They pretty much scare you into not buying an animal. Oh, and if you’re looking for someone to educate you on their animals FORGET IT the young lady had no idea which cats were which as far as temperaments, male and female, age, etc…
Needless to say I will not be back.

The staff was wonderful, especially Summer. I will adopt again from here. I love my rescue dog!

We tried for months to adopt a dog through various Lab rescue groups, but we kept getting turned down for living in an apartment (we lived in Little Italy where almost everyone has a dog) and working full time (unless you’re born rich, how are you supposed to afford to take care of a dog properly without a job?!). It’s important to make sure dogs go to good homes, but the rescue organizations we dealt with seemed a little too restrictive and judgmental. We are very responsible dog owners who provide day care, dog walking, a grain free diet, professional training, and pet insurance for our dog. On a whim we decided to check out the San Diego Animal Shelter. I resisted before because all the dogs I saw on the website were pit bulls or chihuahuas, which are great dogs but not what we wanted. If you’re looking for a dog, definitely go to the shelter. They have so many different types of dogs of all ages and sizes. We found the BEST DOG EVER — a sweet, funny, smart German Shepherd mix. She was a two year old stray that the county picked up two weeks before we saw her, so there was no background information at all. Maybe we lucked out, but she was already house broken and perfect in every way. The adoption fees, vaccines, spaying, and chipping were all super cheap (at least compared to the rescue groups). I highly recommend adopting your pet from here.

I’m really sad to see all the bad reviews of this place. Reading the reviews most people had a bad experience when trying to get a lost pet back, paying all the fees and dealing with the hassle but in my opinion that’s just part of owning a pet, it’s like a child you never know when your need to go to the emergency room are you going to hate the doctors that work on your child. It’s the same thing here are you going to hate the vets that feed and house your pets while your trying to figure out where they are. If you can’t afford to get them out of being housed for the day or days while you find them and be boosted on shots maybe you shouldn’t have pets in the first place. I know I’m going to get a lot of hate from writing that.
My daughter wanted to adopt a kitten for her six birthday. Our first stop was the San Diego human society and that went horrible. (You can read the Unilocal review if you wish it’s posted) We walk across the building to this place and found our three month old kitten with in the first five minutes of standing in the building. The staff working were great she answered all my questions concerning having a kitten. filled out the paperwork Paied the fee and pick her up three days later.
She has only been with us a little over a week but she’s truly a blessing to our family. We already love her so much. She already has everyone roll in the house figured out. She knows she’s here for my six year old and sleeps in bed with her and plays with her. My husband every day he comes home from work she does a lap dance for him around his legs purring until she gets pick up. Myself she waits until everyone goes to bed and comes on my lap and we wacht tv together and last my 15 month old baby she keeps her distance from her and let’s her play with her and then when my 15 month old gets to wild the kitten will just leave. We love our new kitten so much she has been nothing but spoiled scence the moment she entered the house. We couldn’t have been happier with the whole process of adopting her to the ease of her first free vet appointment. She healthy, beautiful and a wonderful addition to our family. Thank you so much for making our family expand with our new baby kitten we couldn’t be happier.

This place is amazing! They have a very nice and big location, with plenty of GREAT animals. It was shocking to me to see how cheap and easy it was to bring home an animal. I don’t think many of the dogs spend more than 2 weeks at this shelter, it has a lot of traffic. Staff is super nice, knowledgable and efficient. Would recommend this place to any future adopters!

If your dog is required by the shelter to be impounded for observation, be sure to take pictures of the dog’s condition before going into impound and a check-​up by the vet. My son did not do that and now his dog is dead.
My son rents rooms and one of his renters had a six year old for visitation. The renter was told to keep an eye on his son because of the pool and three large dogs in the house. One was old, fat and suffered from arthritis so she was touchy. She had never bitten any child and there had been plenty in the house for years. The renter left his son with the old dog and the child poked the dog enough that she bit him. My son heard her warning barks before it happened. The dog was made to go to the animal shelter and take meds «to calm her.» She was made to take more meds upon release. When she came out she was lethargic and the meds led to breathing difficulties and death. Whatever she got in the shelter started the slide and was finished off by the meds she was required to take after the shelter. She lasted about a month.

Love the Gaines facility. Someone had found my Mothers cat, Boo Boo nearly at death’s door. Was kind enough to take her to an Emergency Vet, found that she was chipped and called us to let us know she had been found after 3 months of being lost! She had been mauled by a coyote (we think), not once but twice. Covered in flea’s, lost 2 teeth and severe open wounds on her back end and left flank, severe anemia, maggots on her (that’s a good thing tho, they eat dead skin only). Boo Boo was taken to the County Animal Shelter (actually, my Mom rescued her from this facility years ago). She is definitely a miracle kitty! I just picked her up from my Mom’s local Vet after a week. She is doing fine and making a fine recovery. Thanks to SDAS for all the love, concern and emergency care of Boo Boo. My Mom and Boo Boo are back together!

I got my cat Oscar here 12 years ago. I love that they have a board in each cat kennel where they update things about each cats personality, etc. This last week I had to make the heart wrenching decision to put Oscar «down» due to cancer. After looking at many options (all more expensive) I brought him back here where they put him «to sleep» for only $ 10 and they were so kind every step of the way. I asked to get him back to show my other cats so they could have closure (makes a huge difference!) and she had wrapped him in a beautiful towel. I really appreciated their genuine care and consideration they showed to me and my very loved cat.

First of all, the outside walking in to the animal shelter is beautiful! I have never seen one with their own statues! Then when we walked inside the animals were well organized in different suites. The kitty we initially wanted was adopted. We were put in a list to wait to look at another cat. Domenic ended up helping us. We told him how we are expecting to have a child and eventually wanted to get a dog so we wanted to find the right fit. He informed us the cat we were looking at may be a tough match. We continued to look at some kittens. He helped us pick out one in particular named Napa. She was a beautiful tortie mix. He gave us helpful pointers of what to do so that the eventually grown cat will feel comfortable around a child. He was very helpful and we greatly appreciated it. My boyfriend isn’t even a big cat person but he was excited about this match! We took her home and she’s a perfect fit. Thank you Domenic!

Their customer service is unbelievable!
First off, they need to have people working here who actually care about animals and their clients that are coming in. This review is on behalf of what my mom went through with one of their disrespectful employees.
As this review is rather overdue, this is still something that should be made aware to everyone and how money hungry this place is.
In December 2014, my grandfather passed away. I don’t wish to go into details about how this all came about, because it’s a touchy and personal subject, but he had cat and someone from the county came to pick his cat up. The animal control officer left a note on the door for us to come pick the cat up, if we wanted to keep him.
Since that was my grandfathers cat, and he loved that cat, we decided to keep him and not let him suffer at a depressing shelter. My mom went to go pick him up and the lady she had to deal with was beyond rude to my mom. Sadly, my mom doesn’t remember her name, so I can’t point out exactly who it was, but needless to say, she was unprofessional.
They asked for a ridiculous fee to get OUR family cat back. My mom didn’t have the money to give to them, and she let the lady know. The lady responded to her and said, «if you don’t have the money to pay the fee, how can you care for the animal?» Are you serious?!? Who in their right mind says that to someone who just lost their father!
It’s one thing to pay some excessive fee than to buy food, cat essential, and vet care. Thankfully I work for animal rescue, so vet care is affordable and great for our furbabies. We did get the cat back and he had the finest medical care. Sadly, he passed away, but we provided him with the best.
That is NOT a way to run an animal shelter!

I will say it is a simply stunning compound. I have never seen a shelter so lovely and it’s the first I have walked in that didn’t smell like straight urine. The reception desk staff were very nice and professional. (I had lost my kitty and luckily she ended up in the website lost and found). Although I greatly appreciate the updates on vaccines and chipping I didn’t feel as if it was necessary to not once but twice lecture me in the lobby about having to see the vet. The first gal who came out was actually very cordial about their concerns, but the second lady who loudly lectured me and told me that if I wasnt compliant they would have an officer come to my house and take her from me was not cool! I felt like a total shitbag! I in no way abuse or neglect my fur babies and left with a lump in my throat. My cat has had on going ear issues since she was a kitten and it’s been an on going battle of it clears up then it flares up but apparently that was enough to start paperwork on me. I went from feeling eternally grateful that my baby had been found to leaving mad and embarrassed.

Came here last week to adopt a cat. The staff were friendly and very helpful! I would absolutely recommend that anyone looking to adopt a pet try here first.

Beautiful facility and very nice workers. The wait time was minimal. I would recommend this site hands down over others close by.

These people are not in the business of getting animals back to their homes they are in the business of making money.
A friend and i were around the corner working at our church and we both brought our dogs with us. They escaped and some police officers grab them and took them to the shelter. We got to the shelter so quickly the officers were just making it back to their patrol cars. I think, «No big deal I will go get my dogs and thats the end of it.» Oh was i wrong.
I go to the counter she knows exactly what dogs we are talking about because they literally just handed them off. THEY WERENT EVEN IN THE SYSTEM YET. I specifically said, do NOT give my dog any vaccines or any of your crap, he has them all and i can prove it i just want my dog back.
«Ok thats fine we will just call your vet», she says. They did, and sure enough i proved he was fine, and i proved he was mine by pictures. REMEMBER they still are not in the system they have been there for maybe 8 minutes at this point, probably less.
to make a long story short, oh we gave your dog all the vaccines anyways just to be sure and its going to be $ 134 to get him back.
I then of course asked to talk to a supervisor who they refer to as a «Lieutenant», which is hilarious in it self. Told her the situation. Of course, zero care in the world. «I dont have the money for this», i tell her, he is training to be my service dog which is expensive enough”. Well even though you came in MINUTES before your dog was dropped off, specifically said DONT PUT YOUR CRAP IN MY DOG, we still wont give him to you AND we put the crap in him that you asked us not too. OH AND BY THE WAY you are being fined because he is not neutered.
I was punished because my 4 month old puppy wasnt neutered yet.
I had a bunch of vaccines injected in my tiny puppy that he already has AFTER i proved it to them he had them.
AND i was charged impound and boarding fees for a measly 10 minutes i was there.
these people ARE NOT in the business of reuniting animals with their families, they are in the business of making money and using their power.
Fix your system animal shelter. I am not stopping at Unilocal

I took my dog to get spayed here because it’s drastically cheaper than the vet. The vet wants almost $ 400, while the Humane society does it for $ 75. They did a good job the the surgery, as far as I can tell but they didn’t give me any pain pills for my dog, or the option to buy some. I’m pretty disappointed because my poor dog is in so much pain. I have to go to the vet because they really didn’t take care of us. That’s bad customer service.

There was a pigeon under my boyfriend’s car for about two nights. Noticed it had a broken wing and could not fly, so I called in and informed them about this lil guy. They asked for some of my personal informations and said they sent out an officer and he/​she will be at my place soon. I waited outside for about an hour to make sure that the stray cats don’t attack the pigeon. Officer named Gina arrived after 1hour and 20minutes :) yeppie! Finally Gina was very sweet and gentle, I’m glad to know that the pigeon is in the good hands :) hopefully they can treat this lil birdy and let it go back to where it belongs…

On my way to work this morning I spotted something out of the corner of my eye on the bridge from the I-​8 to the I-​805 North. It was a little opossum, sitting on the railing of the bridge overpass looking super scared for its life. Being an insane lover of animals, I immediately called the San Diego County Animal Shelter’s emergency line and told them the situation. I figured they would laugh at me and not rush out to help an opossum since everyone thinks they are awful creatures. The lady was super nice and got all the information about the opossum’s whereabouts and took down my phone number to call me with an update.
Figuring that it was a lost cause, I was expecting a phone call about 45 minutes later from an officer letting me know that they indeed rescued the opossum. When I asked what they do with it after catching it, he let me know that they re-​introduce it into the wild. I of course was a little skeptical and said «yea, do you just SAY that or do you really do that?» He assured me there was a place right under that overpass which is mostly likely where it came from and that he would be returning it there.
About an hour later while on my lunch break I received a text form a number I didn’t recognize and it was the officer with a picture of the opossum back in the wild along with a picture of it on the side of the bridge along with text saying «You sounded like you didn’t believe me at first so I took a pic».
I just cannot tell you how astounded I am by this place and it makes me SO happy to live in San Diego to know that these people really DO care about animals, whether they are wild or domestic. I’m so happy that I saved a little life today with the help of Officer Wallis with the San Diego Animal Shelter :)
Thanks again!!!

DON’T BUY — ADOPT!
Before you head over to the Humane Society next door, give this place a chance.
There are a wide variety of animals available here, reptiles, rabbits, birds, small animals, and of course cats, and dogs. All ages and breeds are available from babies to seniors. Quite a number of the animals here are already house broken and/​or have received some training. The front desk is happy to provide information on any of the animals that you are interested in. They give you as much information as they have, but be aware that the staff often times has a very limited background on the animal.
If you find someone who may be a good fit for your family, request some one on one interaction time. You can bring your whole family along, including any other animals that may already be part of your family. There is no pressure to adopt, and the staff wants to make sure that the animal you have in mind is a good fit for you and your lifestyle.
You can also save yourself some time by browsing the available animals on their website prior to your visit.

Well this is the nicest animal shelter I’ve ever been to. I mean, whoa. A water feature outside, sculptures, kitty palaces, and a store.
The store is great! We bought a bunch of stuff for our dogs in there and the prices are actually very competitive. There are also kittens inside the store. We accidentally went out a back door and found ourselves in a hallway where behind every door was a dog available for adoption. We peeked in one door, saw the sweetest little pitbul with one eye staring back at us, and had to leave. It was too heartbreaking and I wanted to adopt him immediately. But it’s so quiet and nice in there, unlike where we got our girls.
This seems like a great establishment to adopt your future best friend. Or even just come and wander around. We just showed up because I was donating potty pads, blankets, and leashes but we ended up staying another hour because it was such a great atmosphere.