My Nonprofit Reviews
Anon_12
Review for Operation Paws for Homes, N.Chesterfield, VA, USA
I adopted a dog from OPH and it lasted less than 48 hours. Unfortunately, the dog we adopted ended up attacking another dog. No information was provided about the dog other than he had no aggressive tendencies and was good around dogs and people. He was not aggressive to me or my daughter but he would certainly bark if we moved him away from the window when he was fixated on people outside. The reason we would move him is because we live in an apartment building (its pet friendly) but he would bark over and over non-stop. He was super unresponsive to his name, and commands as well as treats at times. On a walk, he ended up pulling and tugging to get out of his harness and attacked a dog in the neighborhood. We found out that he was a stray dog prior (again we received no information about his medical records and the foster had none either.) He also pooped and urinated in the home multiple times and would not go on a walk after he attacked the other dog. The situation was really bad and now I have a vet bill on my hands from a neighbor. I will say OPH has been helpful through the situation but make sure that you verify everything is accurate before you adopt the dog. We also drove 2 hours to pick him up and back, and 2 hours to surrender him and back. The entire process was highly stressful.
I would like to stay anonymous due to the nature of the story.
More Feedback
If I had to make changes to this organization, I would...
I would make organization key. I think that a huge problem is that there was no organization to the process once it goes to the foster and me the adopter. I also would ALWAYS provide medical records, since the incident my local animal control wants to know if the dog adopted had his rabies shot and I do not have an answer for them yet nor any medical paperwork. Last but not least, I would ask that OPH would have a "trial period" so that you can see if dogs are a good fit in your home or not.
We are very sorry that your experience adopting with OPH was not what you had hoped. We do our best to provide as much information as possible to adopters and to provide as much post-adoption support as possible. We often have little information about the dog’s history before arriving in the shelter, and can only report observations of their behavior in their foster home. In this case, the foster family did not experience the same issues you experienced- the dog did not have any potty training accidents in their home, had been manageable on walks, and the dog had met other dogs without issue. The transition into a new home is often very stressful and overwhelming for the dog. Despite our efforts sometimes adoptions are not a good fit. Since this was not a good match, our team worked quickly to find a solution and fully refunded your adoption fee.
