Pinellas County Animal Services

OMG can I just tell you all I went to an orientation to volunteer there and was under the impression that it was a non-​kill shelter. It’s not and I happened to have to bring a dog that was found on the grounds were I live. Long story short after driving the dog there and seeing the condition of the dog were it looked like it had mange on the top of her head the owner should of been charged with cruelty charges. I was treated with guilt and attitude and was told that they are not a non-​kill shelter and the dog’s or any other animal that you bring there has very little chance of being adopted out. Luckily this dog had a micro chip and they asked me if I would do the leg work for them! Are you kidding me? I drove there over ½ hour away and for them to tell me to do the work that they are suppose to do. And then get an attitude from one of the front desk women oh Hell No… I would suggest you look around and find a better place to adopt. Oh and the odor coming from the dog pen area’s are enough to knock you right off your feet. It’s disgusting. I’ve never been to a shelter and smelt something that bad. I lived in AZ and there were over 400 dogs and it didn’t smell at all. They only had about 90 what does that tell you. So search around for a non-​kill shelter believe me it’s well worth the rewards.

We recently adopted our puppy from here and our experience was great. My son and I came in to view the adoptable dogs. We were immediately greeted by a lady who asked us what we needed help with.
After viewing the adoptables in the main building, we wanted to see the dogs in the overflow (300 building) area. Tim came to take us there and show us around. His enthusiasm and care of the animals was apparent. He was very nice and helpful! We ended up falling in love with a puppy and were able to start the adoption process right away.
Everyone who helped along the adoption process was awesome. We didn’t encounter anything less than superb customer service. Remember that a lot of the people that work here are volunteers. And the regular staff are probably overworked and have to deal with stressful situations everyday.
P. S. LOVE the videos from Jan– this is an awesome way to showcase the adoptables and is what helped to bring us in and adopt from here. They also are very current and responsive on their FB page.
Adopt, don’t shop!

I have had two kinds of contact with Animal Control. One is when I visited to adopt a cat. Everyone was very helpful. The cats have current shots, are spayed or neutered, and have other information such as age and whether they were a stray or surrender. It is very organized.
They can’t control what they have available, it being whatever they get. When I was there they were heavy on adult male cats and kittens. I had decided on a small young adult female. I did in the end get one that was from Animal Control but had been placed in a pet store. I would still say check Animal Control first then the participating pet stores.
My other contact with Animal Control is because there is a feral cat problem in my neighborhood. I have trapped some and pick up has always been quick. The officers are efficient and well trained in safely moving wild cats from trap to transport cage.
One also took a few minutes from pickup runs to check on people feeding feral cats which is illegal in the county. They really care about doing a good job.
Overall this is one of the best government entities I have ever had contact with.

This is an excellent department of county services. Yes there is not a lot of people there to help you visit with possible dogs because they need more people to volunteer to help love on the animals. The always have plenty of animals to choose from and they are fully vetted. I have adopted 2 beautiful dogs from here on two separate occasions. They also work with many of the local rescue groups to help find dogs their furever home.
Animal services is not just for adoptions they also have low cost spay and neuter as well as other services available.

We looked here to try to adopt a dog but there weren’t many people looking to help us find one. This place had only larger dogs (which was okay) but it was loud and had a funky smell in the area where the kept the dogs. We asked to see one of the dogs and was reluctantly helped. After we wanted to give him back we couldn’t find anyone to help us so we wound up putting him back in his cage and locking it ourselves. I feel bad for the dogs there