Baldwin Park Shelter

Welcome to death row of the Los Angeles County Dog Prison.
Can’t say that you don’t leave here with tears in your eyes, or your heart drops.
Many of these are precious puppies, with some trained dogs, some that need training. You can adopt these dogs and save a life.
However, there was a psycho pit bull there that people were looking at. As they got closer to the cage, the dog went biserk lunging at them and literally grabbing the bars and biting the metal. You could see the whole cage rattling. Yeah… nice doggie… nice tame doggie. NOT!
Well, after carefully walking the whole compound, we had endured enough and went down the last row of dog cages where about 15 or so were empty. I was ready to give up and casually looked to my left and saw this darling little Jack Russell Terrier laying silently in the corner amidst all the othe racket from other barking dogs. I called and no answer. I called again and then she finally came over and licked my hand. Then she went back and laid her head down facing the wall. She turned back and looked at me again and went to sleep laying on her paws. Now, That’s the dog I wanted. I went inside and scooped her up.
Some things that people should know about this place as I researched it a little. According to my vet, this place is way underfunded. As a matter of fact, it is at the bottom of the list for upgrades by the county according to my vet. Most of the people that work here are pretty cool, but I tend to talk to people, crack jokes and therefore I tend to see their better side despite how their day went. I always try to look at the positive side of people. On the day I went a elderly lady came in. Her dogs had gotten out and she was kinda at a loss as to how they ended up there and how to pay it. She had limited funds and needed money. I think she needed around $ 400. I then donated twenty dollars and my friend gave her $
help her and then several other people began donating money. Finally the people behind the counter figuered out a way to help reduce the money. I think that she ended up paying around $ 135. Most of the people were in tears and the lady was extremely grateful.
Granted that there are issues that may or may not be resolved and legit complaints. Then you have people that don’t care about their dogs and argue with these people behind the counter. Some can be downright mean. But, I figure that dogs aren’t on the streets by choice. They got out and when the shelter finds them, be glad that they are safe and checked out before you pick them up. Having pets is all about love and care and kindness, but they cost money too, even if they are in doggie jail.
Kind Suggestion:
When a person decides to adopt, I think it would be appropiate if the workers would immediately assign our name to the dog of our choice for adoption. Or assign the dog to the person wanting it and require a deposit to hold the sale. Currently, they say that it will be neutered tomorrow and that you can pick it up and then they give us a copy of the flyer that was on the cage. Just trying to help

The great place to adopt a good dog

Horribly run animal shelter. It appalls me how the employees are just fine with letting these poor animals suffer from such horrible conditions. It is unclean and the animals are not cared for properly. There is feces in the animal’s cages and they are not cleaned or taken care of at all. The staff is rude and unwilling to help you. I wanted to adopt a dog here a few weeks ago. I waited almost an hour in line and when I asked to have a one on one with the dog an extremely rude employee at the desk said they don’t do that when its «dark out». I was there at around 5:30pm and they close at 7pm. Nowhere on the website or the facility itself did it state that this was a policy. As someone who works full time its impossible for me to be at the shelter at that time. I called the next day to see if the dog I was interested in was still available but apparently someone had already submitted an intent to adopt between the time I visited the night before and when I called in the morning…
I recently visited another city funded animal shelter where they managed to take animals out for walks and keep their cages clean as well as have staff that truly cares about the animal’s well nbeing. Unfortunately, this shelter was the exact opposite of that.

I went in looking for a dog as a companion and protection for myself. Constantly being rejected for no apparent reason for every dog I wanted. Finally when I had enough and asked what the problem was, the lady FRANCINE couldn’t care any less for the dog and gave uneducated responses. Still being persistent I filled out a form to get the dog and right then and there she rejected my application.
The people working here are selfish and rude as one could ever be. Even the officers seem like they drag them self to work just to get the paycheck and not for the wellbeing of all the animals that Need a new home, no wonder this place is over crowded with dogs and get euthanized.
If you’re looking to adopt a dog, when filling out your forms, on the last page, circle all the nice things and reason you want to adopt the dog even if it’s for protection purposes or companion purposes.
Doing this you will have less chances of being denied by the assholes working there and save a dogs life.

I love all animals, I always feel bummed out when I go to animal shelters.
I was sad that the employees didn’t really want to help us have one on ones with any of the animals. We wanted to get a one on one with some of the cats and the employees just kept enforcing that their wild and dirty or sick so not to touch the animals.
To be honest, I won’t be coming back unless we are ready to adopt another dog in our lives.
For people looking for loving pets, please do come visit to see the sweeties waiting for you to take them home!

Let’s start off with the obvious; the animal control here are the worst kinds of pieces of shit you can imagine who take their ‘badge’ too seriously. They’re unhelpful and condescending and should be replaced entirely. Fortunately there are channels, and if you know enough people you can get scumbags fired, so that’s now on my to do list.
That being said, the volunteers, like Jeff, are definitely there for the right reasons and while it would be amazing if the facilities were heated and more enclosed, it seems like the animals here are at least treated well. They all seemed so friendly and just wanted to be acknowledged.
Forget the people though. This isn’t that kind of business. If you decide to avoid this place because of rude customer service, you may not love dogs as much as you think. You should make it a point to adopt a dog at a place like this which is both HIGH KILL and suffering from any semblance of ‘service’ because these animals will have a worse off chance due to a situation entirely not of their making.
Screw the people up front. The animals here deserve good homes. They’re some of the sweetest I’ve ever met and I’m still trying and failing not to cry a day later after seeing how much a stupid sniff meant to them. They just want love. Seriously. It’s the corniest thing I could have ever said but that’s literally the way they behaved. Letting one dog sniff me took him from a silently crying baby (his eyes were watering up as he watched me from his bed, waiting to be acknowledged) to a playful pup that went off to do whatever puppies do with the his (I’m assuming) sibling that shared his crate.
Damnit.
I specifically went to greet a beautiful pitbull I had seen everyone sort of walk past as they went outside. She looked so sad. I had to. Even though strange pitbulls tend to scare me more than most dogs, but, as a person that looks the way I do, I know what it’s like to be judged unfairly, so I took the chance.
I only lasted a few seconds with her, not because she was terrifying me, but because she was so sweet that it wasn’t much longer until I broke down uncontrollably and wouldn’t be able to stop myself from crying. The last time, and only time, that happened was at my grandfather’s deathbed.
I sucked it up after a breather and had the pleasure of spending a few minutes with her while my gf and sister-​in-​law took care of suffering through the people in the front. She hobbled up (her hips seemed to he weak) and tried her best to lick me through the fence. I gave her my hand, then my fingers, then realized this sweetheart just wanted me to scratch her. She snorted at me, asking me to play, but I asked her to go down in case her hips were as bad as they looked, and with no problem at all she listened.
When my girlfriend came out there was zero apprehension. She said her hellos and asked for a belly rub (Delilah, the pit, not my gf). She stuck her paws out and dug like a puppy trying to ‘catch’ my gf’s hands, playfully. Then I realized, she was literally a puppy a only about one or two years.
Anyway, Delilah is hopefully going home with my Mom tomorrow, and I hope a few other guys are finding homes as well.
Don’t let the lack of service sway you. That’s not why you’re here. Focus on the positive and the creatures actually suffering from the poor attitudes of those responsible for helping them move to new homes.
And if you’re thinking about buying a puppy or breeding, which I used to understand somewhat, just don’t. Seriously just… go to this shelter first. Then, if you can still manage to bring yourself to get a «new» dog or bring more into this world, please realize that you’re pretty much a terrible human being who should never, ever, ever, ever have a dog, because those dogs will always come full circle and end up here because of people who are trash on the inside.
That Sarah Mclaughlin commercial has absolutely nothing on this reality.

I’d give ZERO stars if it weren’t for all of the precious cuties being held in this facility.
I don’t think that being critical of crap-​staff should dissuade anybody from adopting from here. Boy, the animals here need help…
Some of the staff working the outside animal housing area seemed somewhat caring, I guess. The front desk, on the other hand, is a different story – good luck getting an answer to even the simplest question. You’d think that for the sake of the animals they’d communicate a little better. Such apathy is what makes animal shelters so bleak, and this one is no exception.
I left heartbroken at all the beauties in cages (you just wish you could take them ALL home) who are trapped in this HIGH-​KILL shelter. I’ve visited tons of shelters this year and this one has so many friendly babies, you can tell that many of them were definitely part of a family at one point in their lives. SO sad. They deserve better.
Also, the area where they all board seems quite exposed to the elements – saw several small birds fluttering around inside, which means it must be open air in some parts. They must be freezing during the cold winter nights! Poor babies, brings tears to my eyes. Adopt a forever friend here and get them out of this place!

This shelter seemed as if it were doing amazing things since the removal of The previous manager. An article came out recently regarding a cat who had a broken leg and hadn’t been adopted yet. The cat was on borrowed time since she had already been scheduled to be put down but one employees requests to wait for a few more days saved the cats life. After the article came out the cat was adopted very very quickly by someone who drove from a different state in order to rescue the beautiful cat. It was all thanks to this employees love and care for her job and the animals that she took care of that this cat is alive and in a loving home.
Well apparently the Baldwin park animal shelter does not share the same gratitude towards having such a loving, caring employee who in my opinion should be in charge of the shelter being that she is the only one capable of showing any compassion for the animals at all. The day the cat was adopted she was being transferred and investigated for the articles release.
Way to go Baldwin park animal shelter. You will never get my business again nor will I ever speak highly of you again. In fact I am going to do everything in my power to be sure that people learn of this injustice and biased managers who are incapable of being competent in a position that requires to be fair, impartial, HONEST, and respectful.
You cAn find the article I am speaking about by doing a Google search for cat with broken leg and it will be one of the first hits.

This place is very sad… a lot of the animals were sick when I was here. I believe that they will recover quickly with a loving home. I was heartbroken when I came here as was the munchkin. The animals are so sad and all they need is a great family and loving owners. Please give them a look here.
My biggest disappointment about the pound is that there isnt an introduction/​touching area available to meet potential new family members =(how can you know if you want an animal if your unable to interact with it? Especially if you have kids, having knowledge of how the animals will react with them is of extreme importance. Due to that fact alone, I wasnt able to adopt an animal from here.
I hope that you do come here and find the best pet ever. However this place, which is at the end of a pot holed unassuming alley, just didnt make the cut for my family’s needs. We would have loved to have been able to adopt from here, but it just wasnt in the cards.
I am not sure what their fees are but these pets need you and your love.

Horrible customer service. I came here to rescue a dog. I had my CTA (commitment to adopt) scheduled between 3−6pm yesterday. We arrived an hour before our scheduled time. We were told that we could no longer adopt the dog that day and that we had to wait an additional 10 days.
0 stars

From moment one this was just bad! I called ahead of time with all my information about which dog we were interested in and so on… The gal on the phone was short with me but not yet rude and inappropriate like I would later encounter. She told me the shelter opened at 11am, so at 10:59am as punctual as can be, I arrived. I walked up to the window with a smile and excitement about the opportunity for a new pup, I said «hi, I called yesterday about a dog, his ID number is…» But that’s as far as I got. I was rudely interrupted and A female named Juana said «WE OPEN AT 12!». I was confused, I said «I called and was told 11?» She laughed and said «nope, 12!». So I said «well okay I will wait» and I kid you not, she rolled her eyes!!! So I called the number I had previously called and Virginia answered: I said «hi I called yesterday and was told 11…» She said «yes we open at 11…» I was confused. I explained what was happening and she said she was going to go out and see what was going on. So I see Virginia emerge from the back and she goes up to Juana and explains, Juana looks at me, with a disgusting smile she yells across the room «Nope she can wait til 12!» … An hour later, it’s 12! I say «hi, it’s 12:04 is someone going to unlock the doors?» and while they all stand around having conversations about their personal lives and cussing, dropping F bombs in front of everyone that’s now just standing and waiting to adopt. She said «yup when we get to it»…
At this point everyone waiting for a dog is just discussing Juana and her power trip and awful attitude and lack of any type of customer service.
FINALLY the doors are unlocked, after jumping though hoops to actually see the dog we want, and waiting almost another hour for someone to take him from the kennel, a young girl with another bad attitude, and also lack of vocabulary, comes up as says «ha you sure THIS is the dog you want?! Hell no I wouldn’t want this dog».
I respond «yes, he’s had a tough life, we want to change that».
She starts in on her uneducated and tough-​to-​decipher rant about dogs and how they’re trouble.
She was awful, Juana was awful, this entire experience was a nightmare. The female staff here were a disgrace to not only animals but human females. Cussing, yelling, and zero business or personal tact.
We did have one good experience, a young male, In a Tshirt with a cat on the pocket, was extremely kind and helpful. I didn’t get his name but he was pleasant and helped us.
Otherwise, NO, just NO! This place needs a serious intervention and definitely NEW STAFF!

Personnel seemed like they hated their job. Were not very polite or helpful. The place is in bad condition.
I would not suggest this place as a number choice to go to.
The Downey Shelter was well kept and had staff that actually were polite, friendly and cared. Go to Downey!

I was just here today, like an hour or two ago. I took my dog to get him registered. I was waiting for my father to get off so I waited on the side bye the little window. The lady with the blonde hair told me, let me guess you’re here to drop him off? (in such a rude way)
I was like umm no, I’m here to get his registration!
I asked if they do vaccines there? she response, oh no you need to go get it at Morgan park and also you need him to get him neutered! She was really rude about it! I swear does it hurt her to smile. If you Hays you’re job then quit so people don’t have to deal with the rudeness coming out of her mouth!

This facility deserves no stars. Our tax dollars hard at work (ha ha). This place is an absolute joke! The office staff has no idea what customer service is. They have no respect for anyone walking in trying to adopt a pet. We were left waiting for over an hour because employees don’t know how to communicate with each other. One person went to lunch and never told the other employees to process our paperwork. I ended up asking why we were waiting so long and no one knew what was going on. One of the phone operators yelled out of the other room that the dog we were adopting was called out for a rabies shot 45 minutes earlier.
This is not my first time having to deal with this facility. I’m hoping it’s my last time. This place is known for being high kill so if you are looking to adopt you would be doing the animals here a service by looking for your next pet here. Please just be prepared to deal with a lot of BS. The employees make the process almost unbearable.
I will state that the young lady that helped us with the meet and greet was pleasant, but gave us wrong information on adoption fees.

I adopted my first cat from here back in June. My family chose this shelter because of its high kill rate. We thought, hey lets rescue at least one little life. After making a beeline for the cats, we became overwhelmed at all the kittens and cats they had.
Thankfully, one of the volunteers was very helpful. She pointed out cats that were a little too wild for first timers, cats that were too shy or too aggressive. After ruling those out, my family fell in love with this quiet, mellow kitten. When we asked about her, the volunteer was all too happy to tell us about her. She gave us the kittens number and told us what to do to «reserve» her.
Since she’d only been there a day, we had to wait two days before we could pick her up. She still had to be spayed, started on her shots, and dewormed.
I don’t know if were lucky, or the stars were aligned weirdly, but I had no major complaints about the staff. They were very helpful and the volunteers were great.
My only reason for giving them 4 stars instead of 5 was because we had been told our kitten had been dewormed. However, when we took our kitten to our vet for her first visit, she passed a tapeworm. After paying for the dewormer at our vet’s I can happily say she is worm free.
She’s now been home for little over 3 months, and we could’t be happier. She is a total sweetheart and my family adores her.

Stray dogs are incredibly ate and loyal. Staffs there are not very nice and slow BUT life inside this shelter is waiting for you to take them home! I adopted my dog from this shelter 3 years ago and my dog is a 100% physically and mentally healthy dog! I thought I was saving his life but he was saving mine!

I have inside knowledge this facility had two cases of distemper just 2 months ago.
We recently adopted small breed dog. The cages had feces in the food bowls. We picked up puppy few days later. B. P
Vet aide said puppy may cough due to surgery. What he didnt say was how they damaged her trechea!!!
Next 3 weeks numerous tests, x-​rays, hospital night overs, medications for puppy. From day one puppy could not keep water down. Food no problem. Puppy would regurgitate the water. By 7^th night pup was breathing heavily, throwing up foam, having spasms. Our Emergency hospital vet indicated pneumonia. Possible reason for puppy not drinking water most likely happened when they spayed her when at the shelter. And she told us to use bleach wipes to clean everything puppy toys or when she throws up or sleeps. All due the contagious pneumonia. … Cost that night $ 875.00 .
We saw our own vet by morning 5 medications given. Cost $ 225.00. She still would regurgitate water. We gave pup ice chips. Our Vet said she was released from shelter with PNEUMONIA already in her system. One week later still on meds, she did not improve. Back to our vet & additional x-​rays and medicines and blood work. Costs $ 857.00. Vet said x-​rays showed she had a congenital problem in her diaphram. Which would need surgery to correct. Her constant coughing & regurgitation may have been a result from surgery. B.P. could have damaged the inside lining of her trechea. He too recommended to use bleach to wipe all surfaces.
To confirm additional illnesses more tests needed. They would have to put puppy to sleep and place a camera down trechea. More medication given to lessen effect of regurgitation. Costs $ 170.00. Blood tests revealed — Bordetella, Aspiration Pneumonia, Myoplasma Cynos in her system. Mycopladma is a parasite very contagious. Total costs for all these tests for beautiful puppy in 3 weeks time $ 2000.00
We already own senior dog healthy for past 13^th ½ years. However we were advised by our vet to isolate the dogs from one another. Taking them outside during the day individually. Then again having to hose everything down with water to rid of bacteria. Not good in a drought.
We came to conclusion the health aspect of the puppy will never change. Yesterday we relinquished Puppy to B.P. Their staff was rude (as always) didnt care to hear the health issues of dog. Would not respond, ignored everyone at window & would not speak.0
BALDWIN PARK STAFF NEEDS PERSONAL SKILLS AND BE REPORTED FOR UNSANITARY CONDITIONS !!!

So slow and the people working there make the process of adopting a pet so difficult that you almost don’t want a pet anymore. But at the scary rate in which they euthanize animals here, I had to put up with the incompetence of this place. I had to make more than 6 trips here to finally adopt my dog. The first time I had put a reserve on a dog but the same day I went to pick him up, his «owner» came and claimed him. They failed to let us know beforehand so we made the trip just to be devastated that our dog had been taken. Worst feeling ever. I really despise this place.

I adopted my first dog, Grover from the Baldwin shelter back in 2006. Shelter conditions may have been upgraded since then but here was my experience. After months of research and looking for a little one to add to my family, my then bf and I decided to check out the city shelter. We found little Grover, a brown-​black ball of mess laying in a kennel with 6 other small dogs. His head was curled into his body, afraid to move or do anything. We tried to get his attention but a small toothless chihuahua kept attacking Grover with every small movement he made. We finally got a guy walking with a cart and in a lab coat (looked like a vet) to let us hold and see him.
Instantaneously, we knew we had to rescue him. He was a limp sad mess and seemed to have given up on life so we decided to get him out of there. Since he wasn’t neutered, we waited patiently for a week and came to pick him up after his surgery. Once home, he perked up a little, but was still very sad. The shelter did not give us a cone for his head post-​op, so he eventually licked his stitches off. Also, he had kennel cough and they didn’t tell us so I had to nurse him back to health. Lastly, it took me 2 months to get him to open up and engage with people. He spent the next 4 years terrified of loud noises and being skiddish in certain situations. Now it’s been 9 years and he’s the happiest, most awesome, empathetic, and intelligent dog I know and have ever known!
Please please give shelter dogs a chance, even if you’re not sure about their temperament. A little love and affection can make for a wonderful family member. I would NEVER trade Grover in for anything in the world; he is my life and my heart.
The shelter does need to take better care of their residents, I think bringing on more volunteers would be great.
I gave this place two stars because of the lack of love given to these animals, but I encourage everyone to adopt. These animals do not deserve the fate that we have assigned to them.

Came here for the Low Cost Dog Vaccines and the line was bananas. It was about 100 people in line before 9 am.
The deal is a great price but I gave up left because the line moved so slow.
Vetco is $ 20 more and no line.