My Nonprofit Reviews

I have volunteered with this organization for a while. They are very devoted to saving dogs from euthanasia and less so to adopting out dogs that will make great pets. They frequently have aggressive dogs, or dogs with other significant behavioral problems, that get adopted and returned. Instead of putting them down or providing behavioral interventions, the dogs are placed for adoption again. And are frequently soon returned to the shelter. I get the sense that they are not always up front about the dogs' issues with adoptive families.

They tend to take on way more animals than they can accommodate in their desire to "save lives" and are constantly (2-4x week via email campaigns) begging volunteers with emotional appeals to foster dogs in their homes after they've overextended themselves yet again.

Several staff members openly complain about the volunteers in front of us! They treat us as if we are invisible and unwelcome nuisances. I've been blatantly ignored when I've tried to engage two of these staff members to ask a question on MULTIPLE occasions. I'm guessing if having volunteers is more trouble for staff than it's worth, there is something wrong with their volunteer program, not the people giving of their time and talents to help at the shelter. There are also a couple of staff members that appear to do very little. They are usually standing around commiserating with other staff.

There are several staff members who are friendly towards the volunteers and are good at what they do. But they are not the dominate group there.

Because of the culture, volunteering there is a bit of a bummer. I continue because the dogs there so very much benefit from volunteer services, as the shelter is really too overwhelmed to provide excellent care. Whether it is appreciated or not, it does help the dogs.

FurKids (the shelter's new name) is aware of some of the problems they have. They have acknowledged the over-extended issue and are working to address it.