Save A Life Pet Rescue

I adopted my little nugget a little over a year ago from this rescue group and although he is only a year old, he has had some serious medical conditions. The day of his adoption I was under the impression that I was adopting a healthy puppy. I noticed some cuts along his body but just thought that was due to his «rough life». Two days after I adopted him I noticed him coughing so I brought him to the animal clinic for his free check up. I had a weird vibe about this place to begin with. The vet barely looked over Dexter but told me that he had kennel cough and needed to take two weeks of medicine. All of this was covered and free of cost. Over the first week I realized that I only had one weeks worth of medicine so I called the vet. They told me they would only cover one weeks worth of medicine so I decided to go to another vet altogether. At my second vet they completely looked my puppy over and discovered that he did have kennel cough but was giving an antibiotic that wasn’t recommended for treatment and he also had worms. Within the first year Dexter has had kennel cough, worms and mange, all which have been taken care of my our new vet.
I rated Save a Life two stars because I feel like I should have done more research and made a wiser decision to adopt from this rescue. I believe this rescue could do a better job at taking care the animals in their care. What exactly is the $ 300 per puppy being used for if not to ensure they are healthy pets? In the end I’m very happy with my decision to rescue but it was a very rocky first year. Be sure to do your research and be prepared to spend some $ on vets visits.

STAY AWAY!!! Very sketchy group. I adopted a puppy from them 3 weeks ago. At first she just wanted to sleep which is normal for an 8 week old puppy. Day three she had a runny nose and cough so we took her to the vet. He told us that she has pneumonia and that she should never have been given to us. Apparently the state of Florida makes it illegal to sell sick puppies. This group found a LOOP HOLE they ask for a non negotiable «DONATION» which means they can sell sick puppies. I called the company and they said if we take her to THEIR vet and THEIR vet finds a problem with her they will cover the cost of treatment if its in one week of the adoption date. Ive called several times to get more information for their vet and have not heard back I called and tried to get my «DONATION» back and have not heard back. Week three and my puppy is going back for her fourth vet visit and has a worse cough than before. Stay away from this puppy mill fronting as a rescue group and BOYCOT pet smart for allowing this group to use their location!!!

Update: I noticed worms in the dogs stool (not uncommon for rescue puppies) took him to Aloma Jancy within the week of adoption, all of the medications/​visit/​tests were covered by Save A Life. He had tape worms, hook worms, coccidia, and a slight UTI. He is doing so much better, has gained 6 lbs in the 4 weeks we have had him. He is also 100% potty trained now and can make it through the night without going out 2 – 3 times (thank goodness!). We are so please with how everything turned out.
This rescue is run by volunteers that mostly work at a local vet full time, some are high school students that want to help. This is how they spend their weekends, saving lives from high-​kill shelters. The dogs are not perfect, they do not imply that, they are rescue dogs and as such, they have little history on them. They do have a process that most are not a fan of, however, it works out well. You NEED to sign up on the sheet that is posted at the location at 10am to get on the list for a dog. This prevents chaos at the adoption. They do not have a location for all these pets (store front or otherwise, they are petitioning to get one though!) again, they rely on volunteers to keep them until the weekend, when they make the time to adopt out the dogs. If you were fostering animals, would you want people coming over to your house all week to look at these dogs? Probably not, so they do not operate that way. They respect the privacy of their fosters. I went to this location several times before actually putting my name on the list (I live nearby) when the time came, I placed my name on the list (I was number 27) and picked out a dog. I ended up with a sibling of the one I was there to look at, which ended up great. We have had him for 2 days and he is already crate trained, and getting better at the leash. We have had a few accidents, but they were all on the first day here. We are thrilled that these people exist to help these dogs find homes that would otherwise not be here at all. Thank you!

These are salt of the earth people. They drive all over the south-​eastern USA to save dogs at High Kill Shelters and bring them home to people who are looking to adopt.
As for the people who are writing these terrible reviews, it’s your own damn faults for not reading the site clearly. You can’t fault a company who clearly explains their process if you don’t read the damn thing. You only have yourself to blame. A First come First serve basis is nothing new and you can sign up as early as 10 AM. The dogs aren’t even there till 1:30-ish.
Many of the volunteers are there on their weekends, from local schools to help. I can’t believe how short sighted some of these reviewers are.
In short you won’t find a better adoption outfit in Orlando, period.
If you’re not an informed consumer, you can’t blame the store because you’re too stupid to figure it out.
As for the sick or unhealthy — they’re POUND PUPPIES and often times have been in some of the worst conditions imaginable — again, these dogs are often pulled from HIGH KILL «shelters» so they are not always in the best health out of the gate but the 300 dollar adoption donation covers not only your first vet visit with the local animal hospital but, at least for me, covered the cost of the medications as well — well over the 300 dollars I spent with my donation. My little guy is doing fantastic, and let’s face it, if you’re not in it to care for a sick little puppy then your heart is not in the right place and you should probably look elsewhere — i hear the puppy mills have really healthy puppies… /​s

Very disappointed with the way they operate. I live 2.5hrs. from the adoption so I called the rescue the day before the event to find out a little more information. No one answered so I left a message. No one called me back.
We drove the 2.5 hrs. anyway, 5hrs. total. Was there very early. We waited around in a huge group. The rescue group were a half an hour late to be set up. I finally asked a girl how the process works. She asked if I got on the signup sheet. I told her no. So I went & got on the signup sheet and told what seemed to be the coordinator that it was unclear about the process. She was snippy & told me it is on her website. Well I went back and looked at her website. After digging down in I did find it buried in her site. Stupid me! Before coming I looked at Pet Finders & took a look at her site to see if there was some pre-​adoption paperwork. Just a wasted day on my part. Seems very strange that this rescue group is all puppies very close in age too.

I have always adopted my pets from rescues and not always in perfect health. However, this rescue left me wondering if it was actually a puppy mill masquerading as a non-​profit rescue or a rescue that rescues only unhealthy puppy mill offspring (admirable but essentially guarantees any puppy adopted will have serious health issues). There are better and more reputable rescues out there.

We adopted our dog here in June 2015 and he is the love of our lives. He was about 8 months old when we brought him home and he was already potty-​trained and understood the word «no». He has been very sweet to my senior kitties (wish I could say the same for them). He is just perfect. He had some diarrhea and a little kennel cough, but that is very common with puppies and when you have groups of dogs going to the bathroom in the same area. Some medicine cleared it right up.
Before you complain about adopting a dog that ends up being sick, realize that animals get sick and can be very expensive at any point in their lives. You are adopting a living being from a rescue group, not purchasing a new car from a luxury dealership with a 10-​year warranty. Dogs spread illnesses quickly and sometimes they don’t show symptoms right away. This is just the nature of shelters (and pet stores and breeders!). Please go volunteer with a rescue group for a few weeks and you will see that these people are doing the best they can at an extremely difficult job. Sure, shelters can be a little unorganized when they work out of their homes, depend entirely on unpaid help from the community, and are constantly dealing with no-​shows, unexpected emergencies, etc. These people are volunteers and they spend their free time doing a hot, physical, and endlessly sad job trying to save the lives of millions of unwanted animals. If you want a warranty on your pet, you probably shouldn’t be adopting an animal. These people deserve nothing but thanks, even when things aren’t perfect.

I adopted from Save a Life in January 2014. We are in love with our boy, Bo, and he is currently incredibly happy and healthy. At the time we adopted him I had done research and knew about the sign in sheet. We were first on the list (got there 3 hours early) so we got the dog we had wanted! The night we took Bo home he would not stop itching. He had kennel cough (which we knew upon adopting and were provided medication by the rescue) which is common in rescue puppies. However, he had horrible flakey skin. Turns out he had a horrible flea problem. We contacted the number on the website twice but no one ever got back to us. We were unable to resolve the flea problem until we moved to a new home. A couple weeks ago we went back to the rescue to see if they had and young dogs (but not puppies) up for adoption so Bo could have a friend. When we went we took out several dogs and all of them had the same flakey dandruff (prob caused by fleas) that Bo had. We didn’t end up adopting a dog, not bc of fleas we just didn’t feel a connection with any. They need to be keeping a closer eye on the health of their puppies. They all are well fed and up to date on shots, but you shouldn’t be adopting out animals who have fleas and flaky skin.

We felt uncomfortable with this rescue as a whole and decided not to adopt from them. As nice as everyone seemed, albeit young and not entirely helpful (as they didn’t even know when the dogs would arrive and once they did they couldn’t give you any information on them – not even names) it was just an odd experience. They show up, dump the puppies in large pens, and begin to call names off the sign-​in list. Once your name is called, you choose which puppy you want to spend time with and they allow you to walk around. Many of the puppies had small sores on their eyes or ears and some even had bloated bellies. All of the puppies had kennel cough because, «that’s just what happens this time of year.» It was incredibly depressing.
I will say, we met a few people in line who were repeat adopters and had healthy dogs at home. I don’t think this rescue abuses or malnourishes their dogs. I think it’s just unorganized and run by volunteers who are doing their best. That being said, we were too bummed out by the whole experience (and honestly, scared we’d take home a sick puppy) to adopt from them so we decided to go with another rescue.

Buyer beware. The practices of this rescue are awful. They were part of a Petsmart adoption drive and provided no protection for the health of new born puppies. Furthermore, they insisted that the puppies be fixed before they were allowed to be taken home. (Fixing puppies at a very early age unnecessarily compromises their immune system at the exact time that they are being weened from their mother.) This was the case for the 10 week old puppy we adopted. We brought him home on a Thursday night. Saturday he began to show signs of parvo virus. He was immediately taken to the vet hospital and, several thousand dollars later, he passed away that next Thursday. The people we contacted at the rescue to get information about the puppy’s vaccination history were unwilling to give us direct answers to our questions. They showed little interest in the well-​being of the puppy once it was not their problem. It appears that their primary concern is unloading the dogs and gambling that most of them will live.
***An update: Test results that were sent out before the puppy passed away showed that he had distemper and parvo virus. There is at least reasonable doubt that, considering the efficiency of the distemper vaccine, the puppy was never vaccinated. The paperwork that the pup was sent home with clearly listed this vaccine at 8 and 10 weeks. The rescue has, to date, not provided any solid evidence that he was vaccinated.

I did TONS of research on Save A Life before proceeding with my adoption. If you look at their website they have everything about their adoption process listed. Including the fact that there is a sign in sheet at Petsmart and all adoptions are on a first come first serve basis. (I only say this because a lot of people at the adoption event were complaining about it.) All in all the adoption process went smoothly and I did find the dog that I’d had my eye on, however, they were EXTREMELY late showing up with the dogs. I think the reasons that Save A Life is so disorganized is because they don’t have a main facility set up as a shelter for the animals, so no one knows where they’re being kept, under what conditions, etc. The other thing is that it’s only volunteers that run it, most of which are high school kids who don’t really have the information to provide to you what you would need to know about the dog you’re choosing to adopt. Also, the lack of communication from them is due to the fact that everyone that works the rescue have full-​time jobs outside of it (also listed on the website). I’m not saying it’s excusable but I understand as to why some people have had a negative experience.
Also, no matter what they tell you, you should ALWAYS take your pet to the vet as soon as possible. The majority of dogs that come from kennels end up having kennel cough because of the conditions they are kept in. I know that some of the dogs at the adoption event were on antibiotics, which they provided to the adopters. My little girl, Nova, arrived home with kennel cough and after two nights of using a humidifier, is almost back to normal.
As I said, all in all my experience was ok I just wish the rescue was a little more organized with proper employees.

Adopting a pet is a big decision. When you decide to bring a new family member home, a lot of thought and consideration goes into picking the right pet. So when you do find that special pet, you love them unconditionally before you even get them home.
We found a pup at a Save A Life Rescue event and fell in love with her immediately. Within a week of bringing her home, she was very sick. Tonight will be her second night at a 24 hour surveillance hospital with pneumonia. We have had her only 7 days and we were forced to leave her.
Now, when we adopted her, we were given tons of paper to sign saying we would not hold the rescue liable for medical issues. But never would I expect the carelessness I got today when I called to discuss the issue. I spoke with 2 ppl listed on the website. The first person stated she was out of state and didn’t know anything about the dogs. Why would you have someone listed as the «call this person with any post adoption concerns» that wasn’t familiar with the animals being adopted out? So I reached out to someone else, who was supposed to have more answers.
When I asked for the pet’s background/​history, she stated she didn’t know as all of their dogs came from the county. I asked if the foster family could provide any insight and she completely ignored the question. I asked for the information regarding obtaining her prior medical records. Her response was, «It’s only going to show that she was spayed.» I find it hard to believe any vet would spay a 10 week old dog without doing any type of exam. She then stated, «Well, I hope your vet has her on the right antibiotics. That’s all I have to say about that.»
Not once did either person ask the puppy’s prognosis, say that they were sorry she was sick, ask if they could do anything to help, or even say that they hoped she got better. I don’t believe compassion is too much to ask from an organization the adopts out sick dogs while charging a $ 300 non-​negotiable «donation». I had to ask the second women if she would be contacting the pups litter mates. She responded by saying, «Well, I guess I can. No one else has complained about respiratory issues.»
Complained? Srsly?
This organization is unprofessional, inconsiderate, and does not appear to care about these puppies at all.
— — — —
***Update***
I’m devastated to share that Cupcake could not beat the pneumonia. She passed this morning. Our vet confirmed that it was due to an untreated resp infection. I was finally able to get her prior medical records, but to my surprise, the vet states they did not vaccinate her, only spayed her. The health certificate we rcvd specifically stated that she received 2 sets of puppy shots, so how does the vet not show any record of these vaccines?
Please contact me if you have had similar issues with pet adopted from this rescue. This is not acceptable behavior by an organization fronting as wanting to help animals.

I adopted a puppy on a Saturday and it was dead by the next Friday. I understand per the contract that there is no health guarantee and that the ‘donation’ paid for the puppy is non-​refundable. However what I don’t understand is the total lack of remorse. The only phone call we received from them was on Sunday telling us to take the puppy to the emergency vet. When he was dropped off at the vet we were told that Save A Life would be updating us on his status, which they did not. It will be a week tomorrow and still haven’t heard anything from them. Next time, i’ll go to a breeder.
**** EDIT****
After this terrible experience with Save a Life I did more thorough research and found a reputable rescue in the Orlando area. I found a puppy online that I fell in love with and really wanted to give it a home. On the application it asked if I had ever owned this type of pet before and I told the story of Moe. Thank goodness I did because I was told by the reputable rescue who at this point has none of my money that when you’ve had a puppy in your home that had parvo, you should not introduce another puppy to that environment for a minimum of 6 months because the virus can survive for that length of time and make a healthy puppy ill and could result in death. Thanks Save a Life for contacting me after my puppy died to share this type of information (sarcasm). I could of easily adopted another puppy, brought it home and have it die on me because of your negligence. Do your research and run far away from Save a Life.