Orange County Humane Society

Went over here today to potentially find a new pet for myself and my young daughter. First off the woman at the front desk was super rude. And didn’t seem to care at all that we could potentially bringing a dog home. People want to be greeted and treated well anywhere they walk into. And people coming into an animal shelter are excited and looking to add a new pet to their family. Was super disappointed. This was my first animal shelter experience and the woman at the front really made it a bad one.

Took my family here to look at dogs.
To start, we asked about a specific dog that we found via CL and the lady at the front desk assumed we were talking about an alternate dog, here, I understand that. Then, we decided to show a picture of the dog just to confirm we were all on the same page, sure enough, she looks at the picture and says, yea, this dogs not available right now and doesn’t look like that anymore as its been shaved, ok, no problem we say. We walk back start to look at dogs, lo and behold, we see the dog we were looking for, just as it looked in the picture! So I understand maybe the dogs looked similar.
After that we proceeded to ask about other dogs and the girls at the front seemed to have not even cared that we were there trying to find a dog for our family. They were super caught up in their own conversation.
Thankfully, the volunteers were super nice and helpful.
The other HUGE downside here, is there is not a specific area where you can take the dog to be off the leash, super hard to get an idea of the dogs temperament while it’s bound to a leash.
Outside of the front desk non caring employees, the facilities seemed ok and the volunteers great

I have been a fan of the humane society for many years. I have adopted many of my pets from them. My pets were turned in by their owners for the craziest reasons. The dog jumped up on you, and the cat plays to rough. HMMMMM… They have been the best EVER! These pets that are for adoption come from so many backgrounds and situations. The pets were not put there by the Humane Society personnel, but by irresponsible people. They seem to think they can find pets anywhere in California and dump them where they think is best, or convenient for them. Then other people ridicule them for the disposition of the pets. I have witnessed many people who lie, tie their animals to the door, or just leave them in boxes at their front door. SO GUESS IT IS NOT THAT BAD OF A PLACE! The people who speak poorly of the humane society are people who dictate what they want done with animals, and not what the laws are, or what is best for a pet. Once when I was looking with a friend for a dog at the Humane Society, a man drove up in a taxi. He told the employees he found the dog in Brea. It was the cutest little beagle that surely was loved by someone. The employees told him he needed to have the Animal Control for that area take the dog so it could be reunited with it owner. Of course like many of these people he insisted they Humane Society take the dog. He became upset and refused to do anything else with the dog. I know if that was my dog I would be looking at the Brea Animal Shelter, not a shelter in Huntington Beach. So yes he left upset, but that is the law PEOPLE! We have them to protect our pets to!

I’ve read the reviews below and I think that people are being a little too harsh on this shelter and their staff. I’ve been going to this facility looking for the right dog to adopt and the things and the people that the front girls deal with are ridiculous. In my opinion, every job has their own rules and regulations that need to be abided by. These girls are just doing their job. I’ve always had a good experience with this shelter and will continue to recommend them.
I will continue to go to this facility in search for the right dog for me.
not to mention, shelter is clean and the office always smells good.

This place has gone downhill for sure. The facility is nice, but the people who work there have either lost their passion for saving animals or I just walked in on a bitchy day.
Yesterday, my son found a baby kitten next to a dumpster in Costa Mesa and took him in so the Humane Society can find him a home and we were met with accusations. One of the girls there asked if we had called earlier in the day and then when we said no, she basically accused us of lying and ignored us completely. Crazy. We thought we were doing the right thing by having the $ 65 donation fee and the proper photo ID, but apparently our situation wasn’t convincing enough.
I’m hoping the good work the Humane Society does will not be clouded by their intake workers, but based on the average ratings, it looks like that is already the case.
When I lived in Westminster a few years ago, I had the best experience there, but now I was told that they only take animals from Costa Mesa. They used to take animals from Westminster and HB, but now those cities have to go to OC Animal Care in Orange (kill shelter).
Looks like we will reach out to animal rescue groups from now on.

Worst customer service ever!!! The brunette middle aged lady with one too many facial injections… eeekk that works the front desk is extremely rude. I found a stray dog running in the street and picked him up and immediately drove him over to the shelter. Upon arrival the receptionist lady had a bad attitude, and asked if I called prior… Which I did not and proceeded to say your voice sounds familiar and starting treating me like crap. My boyfriend even said something to me when we walked out about how unprofessional and rude the lady is that works reception. I’ve never been treated so nasty, especially considering I just saved a dog on my own personal time. I will never go back there and seeing all these other negative reviews ensures me its not just me. Fire that lady!!! Seriously, she even told me to just release the dog back into the streets… All I can say is WOW and I ended taking the poor pup to the police station where they were much more welcoming and caring.

I hope this place is shut down the building demolished and the earth salted. The people here have no busines working with animals. Never have I been treated so rudely for trying to save a pups life! God only knows what the animals have to go through.

Terrible customer service. I wrote them an email on a Monday with a specific question only to have a response on Friday which was simply information cut and pasted from the website and no answer to the question. A waste of my time and theirs.

This place is a dump and should be shut down. The staff don’t deserve jobs either they are rude and uncaring to the animals. the bad reviews are true about this place unfortunately. They hose down the kennels with the animals still in them and they wet the animals and leave them like that for days. They don’t socialize the animals at all. The cat kennels are not scrubbed for a long time. They don’t answer, return calls, and the voicemail inbox is full and left like that. Some kennels are in non properly ventilated areas. This place dsnt deserve any stars. I hope this place gets shut down

I haven’t been to all of the shelters in Orange County but I have been to a few and I will say that the reviews for this one as of late are somewhat indeed true. We visited the shelter on a Wednesday (mid-​afternoon) and found two front desk girls upon sign in. One was seemingly friendly and helpful and the other stayed glued to her computer without glancing up once. We proceeded to take a look around the kennels at the dogs and found a few concerning things.
1. There was only one volunteer?/worker visible and she was sorting out portions of dog food on a nearby table while we walked around. She did not once look at us or pretend we were in her presence or vicinity. So, points lost on this one for customer service or help.
2. We noticed some dogs had a bed/​blanket and others didn’t. Don’t know why this is the case… no toys were seen for them either :(
3. The kennel floors were wet. Extremely wet… as though they were just washed but I’m guessing that it’s the opposite and the dogs are walking/​lying in their own urine. I noticed dogs who didn’t have a bed or blanket… their kennel was the most soiled. Devastating.
4. After waking through all of the dogs… all of who were barking and probably hungry… we noticed the same worker who we saw previously sorting portions of food, was behind the kennels texting on her phone (with the food sitting out to open air on the table) … Umm, do the dogs actually get fed?!
Ok, now for the GOOD I encountered that day.
1. The one front desk girl who seemed friendly and helpful, even after asking for permission to walk and meet one of the dogs, spent quite a bit of time with us giving us the story on our pup we were inquiring about. She interacted with us as though she was not busy and we were not a bother at all! Scored points on this one.
2. If you are interested in a dog… they bring the dog out on a leash for you so you can walk him/​her at your leisure with no supervision. This is kinda nice because who wants someone over your shoulder when you are trying to consider a life long commitment.
3. It seems their application process is pretty easy. Don’t know if this is a pro or con. We filled out a short app while there and showed a photo ID. She glanced at our app and said we look like we check out well and said as long as we brought proof of residence (whether you own or rent), we could take the dog home asap. No further questions seemed to be wanted to have. This was kinda nice because I have found most shelters take applications on a running basis, review them, pick the ones they like and then decide on an owner. Even if you are a good candidate for ownership, some shelters will give first come first serve to the applicants inquiring about the same animal (if they like your application).
I was hesitant on visiting this shelter because of all the negative reviews, but I wanted to see for myself. I would say that my review is mostly positive but I did see those few concerns that would make me question whether or not he animals were truly being cared for properly. We ended up not adopting that day, but we are still searching for our new addition.

If you would like to be completely frustrated, talked down to, ignored and «schooled» go here. I would have left 2 minutes into it had we not found a cat we bonded with. The main receptionist with black hair is completely rude! She and another staff member ignored me entering while they talked about personal matters. When I asked if I could go look at cats they said yes, that’s it. I took it upon myself to figure out I had to sign in. They were supposed to have me complete the paperwork and provide it first. We then were told that we needed to show a current lease agreement that said we can have cats. We are month to month, no agreement. She argued with me for 15 minutes and said my landlord needed to go get a lease agreement for pets. Really? Dear landlord thank you for letting me have a cat now I need YOU to do X Y Z! I asked if a letter from her would suffice. NOPE! Through rational I was able to get her to agree to a faxed letter (that could have can from anyone). Her passion is being the NO person clearly. I asked if we could start my paperwork while waiting for the fax (due in 10 min). She said, NO, we’ll start the process once fax is in hand. I understand policy but the delivery is crucial as well as consistently of what’s acceptable documentation. I noticed that as I «brown nosed» her she «bent the rules». Too much work!

This is a horrible place to begin with. But the employees are not only rude and uncaring about the animals, they falsify documents (or are just really bad at their job of data entry!) Rather unethical
Either way be vary careful when you adopt! Don’t expect the paperwork to be correct at all. I adopted a kitten from the shelter. One of 4 kittens that I had fostered since birth, but was asked to bring it back when I hadn’t found a permanent home. Within the 17 days it was there it fell ill. When I saw it sitting in the ISO ward I adopted it to bring it back to health. The paperwork stated that he was up to date on Rabies, and Feline distemper. When I asked the office manager Mirna to clarify the paperwork. she stated «if you read your paperwork it CLEARLY states they are due in September 2016.
But if you CLEARLY do the simple math, the cat was only in the shelter for 17 days. how did it get a series of 3 sets of shots that are given 3 weeks apart? Not only are they rude but have trouble with simple facts and math. When I questioned the data listed, I was told I could start the series over again, which I will do but NOT at the AAA veterinary clinic next door because they own the Shelter
If any other person would have adopted this animal they would have assumed he was up to date on his shots, and he could have gotten really sick from not being up to date, causing much grief and sadness to that owner.
AND the NON PROFIT organization stated that they had given shots that they PAID for when in REALITY they did not pay for because the series of shots not have been given, Again a question of ethics…
If you donate money here, you might want to think about giving your money to another shelter.
I know for a fact (I have volunteered here for 2 years), Your money and donations do not go to the better of the animals. Just sayin.

The OC Humane Society is a toilet bowl. The animals are stuck in smelly kennels, and are not socialized at all. They turn down volunteers, myself included, who are ready and able to walk the dogs. The woman at the desk tried to explain to me that «no kill» shelters don’t exist when that is just untrue in every respect. God help these animals who are not set up to succeed in any way.

The other reviews are accurate. These girls need to stop eating ex. The night before they have to work.

Very tough to work with. Get your pet somewhere else. They are tough to get ahold of and work with do not answer their phone, mailbox is constantly full and when asked for help the receptionists response was rude. I’ve heard rumors that volunteers have left due to poor conditions. I can only attest to their poor customer service but it doesn’t surprise me.

I know that the humane society takes in cats and kittens that are strays and they don’t know too much about them. This isn’t my problem with them. I will never ever get another cat or donate any money to the humane society on new land because of the people who work there. My 3 month old kitten is very sick and the specialist needed to see all documentation from any vet or shot or treatments she had. When I called asking them to fax over the info to the specialist the lady who answered was the rudest woman I have ever spoken to. She said that the medical records were expired because I didn’t come back for round 2 of the shots. When I explained that I went to another vet to finish the second round and that the specialist wanted to see everything the kitten had been give this woman’s already crappy attitude turned into her yelling at me telling me it my responsibility to follow up with them and care for the kitten properly. I had to tell her to just shut her mouth because she was out of line and send the documents on the shots they had given my kitten to the place I needed them to go. Needless to say they never faxed the info to the specialist. The animals need help and homes and the waste of life that works there is not helping the cause but hurting it. All these animals need good homes and my purpose for this Unilocal isn’t to prevent you from adopting from this humane society my goal is to inform you of the incompetence and totally unprofessional attitude you will encounter. After reading all the other reviews on Unilocal I see I am not the first to have a problem with the «staff» or better term for them is the bile behind the counter. If you encounter this woman just bite back at her it shuts her up real quick.

I think Lori M said it best:
«Shelters are not always fun places, for the people or the animals. However, they are needed and they perform a service. We’re fortunate that they are here, and so are the animals.
Some of the staff is helpful. Some isn’t. Mostly, they are doing their job and keeping these critters same until we can welcome them into our homes. It is likely that the staff sees all kinds of terrible things and can be a bit jaded. However, the kennels are clean and the handlers that I have seen appear to care for the animals. Be patient with these folks who see stray after stray, owner surrender after owner surrender.
There is a solid group of volunteers who show up to walk the dogs every day. They spend time teaching the dogs to walk on a leash and generally be ready for you to adopt.
Don’t let one encounter with a tired shelter worked keep you from this place. Most of the folks here are kind and have been willing to spend time with me as I needed it. Besides, your next best friend is here waiting for you.»
My experience: the staff tries to do the best they can in the world they work. I felt very depressed just walking in and hearing the dogs crying, the smell, and sense of overwhelming sadness from the cages.
Caesar was RESCUED because SHOPPING is for arrogant, narcissistic, selfish people. He learned to walk outside and pee in two days! He never has pooped indoors! I feel SO LUCKY because I know this is a rarity from a 2 month old pup. He’s so smart and sensitive, I know how to read dogs.
I named him after Cesar Millan, who I watched regularly, until I became sad because: 1. I hadn’t owned a dog in many years 2. so many stupid people owned dogs. I highly recommend you watch The Dog Whisperer if you love dogs and want whats best for you AND him.
The staff here took care of business. They do their job the best they can in their world. I’m grateful for their service and for Caesar.

My family and I visited this animal shelter. We were sad about losing our dog a month ago and wanted to rescue another dog. When we walked in no one acknowledge us and we saw the sign in sheet, so we signed in and took it upon ourselves to look around at the dogs. It was very depressing and dirty and very inhumane feeling. No one still bothered to help us, except for one of the nice volunteers who answered a few simple questions. When we found a dog, they office personnel did not seem to enthusiastic and just asked what number. The other girl was eating a popsicle and completely ignored us. They said we could take the dog for a walk. Their was no grass or place to walk the dog except for a busy street and parking lot. It was not easy to bond with the dog at all. We were all distracted by the loud traffic. We fell in love with the dog. Went back and told them we will adopt him. After waiting awhile, staff gives us paperwork and never looks us in the eye once and is extremely rude and put out by us. Tells us we need a rental/​lease agreement to show we can have dogs at our home. I explained I had one and would have to drive back to Long Beach to obtain it. She says they have a one hour policy. I explained we would not make it back in an hour due to Sunday traffic on PCH and she said sorry that’s our policy. I rushed home and found agreement and when I got back another family was walking the dog and saying they wanted it. I went in and the girl simply says, «You took more than an hour. If they want it is our policy they can adopt it.» I was upset. I went out and explained to family and of course they gave me they dog and understood. I knew I was not getting the same response from this non-​caring staff. The girl was the office manager because I asked to speak to one. I have never seen such an unprofessional, non-​caring manager. She then picked apart my agreement, highlighting it and trying to say we need a written consent from our landlord. Who lives out of state and the office was closed that day. I was not happy and said we are trying to save a dogs life and we are showing you proof like you asked. It clearly stated we were allowed to have multiple dogs and cats at our property. She says that she normally does not do this and she will make exception for me. I just was quiet got signed the papers, paid with my credit card took the dog and left. They never made one comment about the dog, to the dog, offered the free sample bag, or something out of the donation bin. Nothing except saying my husband was rude because he told her how rude they were. I feel sorry for anyone who has to deal with this staff. I am appalled at someone who owns this facility and does not do anything about it. And this does hurt the animals that are waiting to be saved, and that’s the most important thing or should be. It’s very obvious this establishment is about the business an not the poor animals.

I am very disappointed with this place. My friends ID never got returned to her so we drove all the way up here after calling 5 times in the last 2 days. and they are closed. yet online it says they are open and there answering machine said nothing about them being closed. very disappointed after driving almost an hour to get to this place.

I’m really sad that the OC Humane Society has such a low rating on Unilocal!We adopted a 2 year old border collie/​aussie shephard/​lab mix and he is phenomenal. Poor lil guy was sitting in the shelter for 3 weeks before we found him and brought him home. This shelter may not be the biggest shelter in the area, but the staff is wonderful. This is a low-​kill shelter (basically they only put down animals who show strong signs of aggression or have diseases that could put the other animals at risk).
The kennels are fairly clean and the dogs are walked daily. The staff is extremely nice yet somewhat strict. I can appreciate a strict staff at an animal shelter. The staff makes you fill out a form before you see the animals and they make sure you’re a qualified applicant for adoption. If you don’t qualify, they don’t let you walk the dogs or adopt. Simple as that. These folks don’t waste time with people who aren’t serious or wouldn’t be suitable pet owners. Any responsible pet owner can appreciate that!
Our adoption process went smoothly and we are blessed to have such a sweet dog as a part of our family now. We continue to take our pup to the AAA animal hospital that’s attached to the shelter. Every time we bring our puppy in to visit the staff at the animal shelter, they always spoil him with treats and love. The staff here LOVE the animals and they are always so overjoyed to see us. We had a great experience here and we hope you’ll stop by to adopt one of their adorable puppies or kittens. These pets are waiting for you to love them!
Adopt, don’t shop!