Lancaster Animal Care Center

So I went in to adopt a kitten. After having to pull a number twice and waiting for almost 2 hours, I was finally able to finalize the adoption. They told me that I couldn’t take the kitten home yet because it had to be neutered first and told me to come back 5 days from than to pick him up and he’ll be ready to go.
So the day comes that they told me I can come pick him up. I live all the way in Newhall so it takes me about an hour to get to Lancaster. I get to the shelter and take a number just so I can pick up my kitten. I wait there again for almost 2 hours. They finally call my number and tell me that my kitten couldn’t get neutered because he was still too young. Not only that, but that he also has a cold now. He wasn’t sick when I first came to meet him 5 days ago. Because they wouldn’t let me take him the first time, he got sick by being in that dirty shelter for too long. And now he’s on antibiotics and very sick. They completely wasted my time and let my kitten get sick in the meantime. I would not recommend this particular shelter to anyone!

I have been coming to this place for two decades and nothing has changed. The reception center is the same, people are ignored until their number is called, I have to stand like in a bus side by side with some unhappy soul talking on and a person can sweat as it gets stifling hot in there as well. Come on, put some money into this place, give the employees and customers some comfort, and let people know in a faster way, maybe a board up on the way like at the airport if a particular dog already has people signed up for it, and for pete’s sake let s person that has waited see a dog and device the people that are waiting in the reception area, or make it more clear that 5;00 means seeing no dogs! Your closed for that kind of business even though you’ll see other people with numbers for other kinds of business. Anyhow, update and prorate the service to your customers!

This place is horrible. The animals are treated like crap. Recently my little dog disappeared (we found her today thank god). Ive gone to this shelter once before late around 7pm i believe to take a large dog that was tied to my bfs best friends car tire. When looking around the kennels i saw a worker DRAGGING a dog by the leash.
For the past 3 days ive been going every morning, but the day my dog disappeared i got there ten to 5 (when they close) because i had to leave work early. Finally after waiting for 20 minutes i was able to ask one of the employees about how the procedure for a lost dog goes; how do i check for her, if theres a designated area for new lost dogs, etc. She would cut me off for everything and give me vague i dont know answers. Can you not ask for me? I got very upset but left to my car before i said anything and felt so helpless not having been given advice or any help, i was already panicked and just became furious.
The next day i went i asked one of the outside employees the same questions hoping for some helpful answers, nope same vague i dont care type questions.
Fortuantly, i was able to find my baby NOT at that shelter and needed to write a review. They dont care about the animals there or help you.
You need to be very assertive when talking to these employees, theyre like the DMV employees.

I have adopted 3 pets from this shelter. The staff has been friendly at each visit even though they were obviously overworked. They were honest about what they did and did not know about the animals. It’s a very large shelter, and people need to be patient and understand that things take time there. Once my dog ran away and was 3 days later picked up and taken to the shelter. I went twice a day looking for her and staff was understanding, took time to help me check for her, and were incredibly kind when she finally arrived at the shelter.

Empty front desk on a Saturday for over 20min, people are getting frustrated and leaving. Dogs could have been saved, but due to staff, many potential adoptions didn’t happen today… SAd
The front desk staff needs to get it together.
The staff that is out there helping you with animals I’d friendly

1. They won’t spay/​neuter your pet if he’s geriatric (old).
2. They won’t tell you they didn’t spay/​neuter the pet until you come back a week later to pick up the animal, even though you already paid for it. They will say you could have taken the animal home the first day you came.
3. They put the responsibility on you to get blood work and/​or neuter the animal by a private vet because they «are not equipped to neuter a geriatric animal».
4. They will NOT tell you the animal has testicular cancer, they’ll let you find out for yourself at the private vet. You eat the entire cost.
5. You’ll get back the $ 50 you gave to them for the neuter they refused to do, but in 4 – 6 weeks and via check in the mail. Maybe.
This animal shelter WONT give you the whole truth about the animal’s health.
Brenda was the officer that said they didn’t have anything on record about the animals health. She knew the animal was older but still made us pay for the neuter and assured us he would be neutered. Our dog was in the shelter an entire week longer than he needed to be and didn’t get the care we paid for.
Shirley was kind to us and clearly stated the procedures we needed to go through and apologized for the misunderstanding. She remained pleasant even though we were mistreated the first time around.

Today was my third time driving all the way to Lancaster to look at a puppy… another waste of time. The staff in the office is useless. I went to see a puppy that was listed on their website that was available today ¹²⁄₇ and stood in line, when I get to the front the employee tells me the pup has been adopted and four other people are on the waiting list if the adopter doesn’t show up on Thursday… uh? This puppy wasn’t available until today ¹²⁄₇ and I was there before the shelter opened and 3^rd in line!!!
I don’t understand… So then I went back to the kennels and found the sweetest 2 year old GSD that has been there since November 15^th… So I went back to stand in line to have a meet and greet with this sweet baby… I get to the front and the employee says…“he has been paid for, he is adopted”. I am so so mad and upset! The notice on his kennel says he has been availiable since November 19^th… WHY CANT THE SHELTER MARK THE KENNEL AS «ADOPTED» or something? If a pup is spoken for then the website and kennel need to be marked. I guarantee they wiil adopt more animals out.
Major waste of the dogs and my time. As I said, this was my third trip and after being interested in 6 dogs, I still did not adopt a dog, and as of right now I will not go back to the Lancaster shelter.

This is the only animal shelter for the entire Antelope Valley. They are always full to capacity and if you want to adopt a pet there will be plenty to choose from. There are four dog barns and one large cat barn. One to two barns are usually full of pit bulls. The remaining two barns contain other large breeds and a collection of mixed breed small dogs, usually 5 to a pen. There are usually several German shepherds and a variety of mixed breeds.
The cat barn is full of kittens and cats. I have had two experiences adopting kittens from this shelter. The first time I adopted a cute little fluffy black calico. In the car I noticed that it seemed to have trouble breathing. I took it straight to the emergency vet before even going home and they recommended that I have it put down as it was already too far gone with some respiratory illness. Then I had to get a special form filled out from that vet in order to get a refund from the shelter. After that sad experience I didn’t think I would ever adopt from them again.
A few years later I stopped by to look at the kittens again and I saw a really cute orange kitten that I took home. I had a much better experience with him although he was a wild kitten and a crazy cat. I’ve had him for three years now and he’s turned out alright. This is not a rescue where the animals have been looked after and are ready for adoption. This is a shelter where the animals have just come in off the street and you adopt at your own risk.

The rudest employees, and they do absolutely nothing when it comes to «controlling» animals. They tell you that you have to catch these stray dogs and cats yourself before they can do anything! It’s your job to keep us safe from stray and aggressive dogs! I don’t want to keep a dog in my backyard just to wait for you to come get it. I have a five year old that loves to play outside plus two dogs they need to go back there as well! Do your damn jobs!

Urgh. Tried to report a neglected pittie that’s chained to a tree next to my friends house, but was told she would have to call, in case they had to get into litigation with the owner of the dog. Who wants to get into that with your neighbor? Poor dog has no food, water or shelter, but the extremely rude guy on the phone said no can do. Unless you are willing to go to court and fight your neighbor they can’t help you. Should be more worried about the animals, less about due process. Booooo. Lost a little faith in people today.

I got the loveliest kitten from here, so thanks for that! The facility is clean, the animals seem well attended to, and I feel like they get good care, but clearly that place is very understaffed. I waited an hour and half to even start filling out forms. You guys should probably work on that if you want more pets to be adopted.

Went there last year to get a dog license for my dog. The staff was extremely rude, in addition, they acted like I was supposed to know exactly where to go, etc., even though it was my first time there. After a little while, there was one African-​American lady who was nice and tried to help me, even though I could tell that it was not her job but she probably felt bad. Kudos to her, hope she has a great career. Other that that, not a good experience.

SOME staff members were very polite, friendly & willing to help out & take an extra step, so thank you.
However the organization in this place is awful, it’s understandable if it’s under staffed but at least have a system to get it together so people don’t waste their entire day & possibly give up on taking a pet home cause of the ridiculous wait.
We found a pet (1hr), set up a Meet & Greet got a # waited 2hrs with no change, so left for some food came back later. Came back got another number waited another 1hr, finally asked an employee if there was anyway to meet the pet we liked as other people in line were here for other reasons, finally she said yes & got us & about 4 other people that were there for Meet & Greet. We met our pet after getting the OKAY from the office as they looked him up & confirmed the type of dog from the ID #, we fell in love with him & decided to proceed with adopting.
We found out 2hrs later after being IN THE office the whole time, being the last couple in their that the pet we loved was adopted not to long ago. That the employee made the mistake of not filing the pet we looked at as under «Viewing» so as to not be adopted by someone else.
6hrs spent in this place & for people to make mistakes like this makes you not want to come back & kills the chance for other pets to be adopted.
Have separate lines or categorize, for people to pick up pets from surgery /​lost & found/​meet & greet/​adoption.. . It would’ve helped for employees to at least have eye contact with you & just simply ask «what are you here for? OK you will need to go this person for this…» etc or «You don’t have to wait in line for this, he/​she can help you». We’ve been here before & said what we’re here for, and they’ve told us to grab a number & wait in line.

There was a dog in the paper that looked like my dogs sister… come to find out it was her sister. I had the dog’s (Bella) ID number from the paper. After being routed by the phone system, a nice gentleman answered the phone, and after I gave him the ID number of the dog I was inquiring about, he said she was a chinese-​shar-​pei (which was correct) and that she had been adopted… whew. I already have 3 dogs, but was going to add another if need be. I never told the gentleman what type of dog it was… so I knew their information was spot on, when he said she was a Shar-​Pei.
I thought I would be put on hold, and then someone who did not have a clue, would feed me a line of crap… I was «wrong» They rocked !!!

Okay, so I have mixed feelings about this place…
We arrived when it opened in hopes to adopt a puppy for my parents. I kept my eye on their website and noticed he hadn’t been adopted for a few days, so I drove to Lancaster from West LA in hopes of adopting him at opening time. When I first entered the kennel areas with the dogs, I was heartbroken (as one always is when visiting a shelter), but this was a different kind of heartbroken. The kennels had a terrible stench! I can’t imagine how many of the animals were sick from the uncleanliness of the kennels. Some of the kennels were ridiculously small for the animals as well. The animals had the main kennel area, but also had a back area where they could lay outside. However, many of the animals back area was closed off so they were stuck with barely any space to turn around.
Well, I look around and realized I couldn’t find the puppy. I ask the front desk about it and they plainly tell me «Oh, he’s in the clinic as he got neutered today. He already has a waitlist and someone committing to adopt him.» I was happy he got adopted, but I was pretty upset that the website hadn’t been updated as I had seen other dogs come off the site when they were clearly adopted after he was. Same thing with a few of the other puppies I was watching on their website: I couldn’t find them as they were being fixed for their next home.
I kept looking around but I didn’t really feel a deep connection with any of the dogs unfortunately. I did overhear an employee speaking with a volunteer and I couldn’t believe what I heard. «You actually care about them? I thought you were like the rest of us who don’t.»
I thought I maybe I misheard them, but I swear that they were speaking about the animals. I have never heard another person ever say that in an animal shelter… You could tell from some of the officers/​workers that they just didn’t care about the animals and that the volunteers loved them. This really just confirms my suspicions that this place just might abuse the animals.
Even the front desk already seemed to be annoyed by the few people who entered at opening time. I really just hate how these animal shelters have employees who hate animals or hate convincing people to adopt the animals. Do they REALLY want to euthanize them???
I dislike that I was unable to get a dog which I wanted, as they failed to take it off their website, and of the treatment of the animals from the employees. I wish I could save every single one from this place. I’ve had better experiences at other shelters/​rescues and I can’t believe these guys make the process to adopt annoying and long.
Please, if you live close enough, save the animals from here. I wish I had the time to drive here, but I think I may need to save animals a little closer to me,

We wandered around for 10 minutes trying to find a dog, then when we finally found the dog and asked to arrange a meet and greet, we were told the dog was already adopted. Why didn’t you tell us that when we inquired about the dog in the first place? Staff needs to get it together.

Lancaster Animal Shelter is a death sentence for these dogs once they get through these doors. It’s a horrible place with a high kill rate and even worse human beings who run it.
Also, please make sure the dog you’re adopting is really adoptable. They will lie to you to give you any dog.
If you’re into fostering or rescuing animals independently out of the goodness of your heart then be advised, make no connection to this place. They won’t let you place ads and make you feel like a criminal just for rescuing a dog… saying that fostering a dog in your home is unlawful.

All I can say about this group of goofballs is that they are highly unprofessional. They are really soaking up your tax dollars. Please follow up when dealing with these folks.
To bad for the pets, they have no interest at all in these pets getting a home. They will make up anything to keep you from leaving happy. So before making a trip all the way over there, look elsewhere.

Late one afternoon I saw online that a litter of 7 pitbull puppies was just brought in. I only had a few hours till closing so I rushed over there to place a commit to adopt. When I got there I would say about 2 – 3 hours passed from the time I saw the post to the time I got there. I walked in and all the staff was gossiping in the front. I asked a nice younger lady about the litter. She asked the man that picked then up and he told her he hasn’t placed them in their cage. He seemed a little bothered that his convo was interrupted and said he would bring them over right now. In comes the guy with 7 pups in a little tub I’m surprised known fell out.
Anyways one pup picked me and I agreed haha. I went to the front and put a commit to adopt this process was easy. A few days later came my pick up date. I went an hour after opening on a Saturday and it was packed. I caught a number machine out of the corner of my eye so I grabbed a number and waited. Turns out the 2 people who got there before me didn’t know anything about getting a number so lucky for me sucks for them I guess. It would of been nice for staff to tell people as they walked In to grab a number.
Due to the fact that I wanted to adopt a dominant breed I had to get interviewed. The man that interviewed me was great. He was genuinely concerned about the dog. He was interested in my experience with the breed and how I was going to go about raising him. After about 10 – 15 mins I was approved.
The girls behind the counter are blah it was a happy moment for me and you would think a happy moment for them that a puppy was getting adopted but I guess not. I was told to meet a lady at the cage he was in to pick him up. She gets there opens the cage and a puppy escaped who I chased after while she injected my puppy with his microchip. Kind of careless. To top it off there was poop and piss everywhere in that cage it was gross. The first thing I did was give my puppy a bath when I got home.
The place could use a lot more clean up especially with the puppies. This place seems to get puppies almost every week and it would nice to see the staff actually care about the business they work in.

I sit here looking at a sweet foster dog that we pulled from Lancaster a few weeks ago. She is a biggie and she is all black. Biggies and blackies don’t make it of out a shelter often, especially a place like the Lancaster shelter. What a shame. This biggie is super sweet and will be a fantastic family pet.
The drive to Lancaster isn’t scenic. It isn’t short. It’s often ridiculously hot. The journey to something special is often fraught with discomfort and this holds true here.
Lancaster is a big shelter. It’s a full shelter. People in the community seem to fail to give rabies shots, get their pets fixed, or care too much. This makes it hard to get out of this shelter for all of these adorable animals. Animals here more frequently are PTS than not.
There are lots of adorable littles here: pugs, terriers, and fluffies of all sorts. There are handsome biggies here: dane mixes, labs galore, and lots of german shepherds. You guessed it: there are lots of kissy pitties and pocket-​sized Chi’s here, too. Let’s not forget the cuddly kitties.
–2 stars for those people in the community who aren’t responsible pet owners
–1 star for an overcrowded shelter that euthanizes frequently and in large batches each week
+1 stars for the brave, rarely daunted rescue groups that make the trip and the time to help these pets out
+2 stars for the responsible pet owners who find their next family member here
+3 stars for the pets here… adorable, sweet, smart, and patient
In short, don’t buy. Adopt. Remember to spay and neuter. Never forget that your pet will show you unflinching loyalty and hope for yours. The love of your life is probably waiting for you in Lancaster and that makes the drive worth it.