City of Sacramento Animal Care Services

I wanted a puppy for a month or two. i checked around the internet looking at litters of puppies and had my misgivings.
There’s 2 types of dog breeders that you can find on craigslist/​the internet: The ones who think that they know best, and will scrutinize you your lifestyle and living situation down to a T when they aren’t even anything to write home about annd…
The ones who are in it for their $ 700‑1000 «re-​homing» fee. The greedy ones don’t seem to care as much whether you live in a condo or on a farm, they bred that litter for a good 5 or 6 grand. the negative nannies who think that they decide whether you’re a viable owner without even knowing you. So it’s really not easy at all finding the right puppy for yourself AT. ALL. Maybe some people hit gold on the first try or two, but not I.
I knew it would be work. It should be work, frankly. I had been to the shelter on Bradshaw last summer and it was not a fruitful visit. Many large mastiffs that I knew I wasn’t in the market for and some chihuauas. OK. I’ll admit it. I’ll be the one to say it. I am NOT in the market for a pit bull. NO way NO how. I do not care how many memes are floating around facebook constituting a debate over how they are raised as opposed to the breed being an aspect of their consistent rep. You find a good deal of pitts in every shelter, every time.
Anyway. I went to the Placer County ASPCA in Roseville, which is the only center even close to front street, and it was alot of cats. If you want a kitty that one might be good. Front Street has more dogs. I noticed that late in the Summer when I was scanning and I noticed it today. Front street had many adoptable dogs. Good looking, sweet, and well taken care of dogs. Some too large for me and I was looking for the impossible. A puppy, at a shelter. Perhaps not a purebred, because that would be close to dreaming right?
I arrived today on a cold day in January to a line of people in their little front desk lobby that’s at the inner parking lot facing front street. I stepped in to ask as cordially as I could what I should do in order to meet new animals this afternoon (I arrived a bit after noon, which was right when they opened). I seemed to have asked the wrong woman, because the woman I asked grunted with brief curtness one or two words that constituted «yeah» or something that didn’t exactly um. anyway. I was then told by someone else that I should fill out a blue form, which I did. And then I was under the impression that I was free to walk through the kennels and check some boys and girls out. I met abeautiful allwhite German Sheppard who seemed quite friendly, approx 2 years old. Too big for a 2 bedroom apartment in downtown Sacramento. A labrador mix that was very sweet. And I kept saying hello to various little ones, all very adorable until I glanced down to my right and noticed a set of three beautiful terrier mix pups. not mixes of mixes. clearly a cross of 2 purebreds. I breathed inward with that bit of awe as I checked them out and just felt a bit of a connection, to their appearance. they seemed receptive. It was then that I knew that I had a choice to either take the card with their pictures on it, Or not. And I did. If I hadn’t he would have been gone in minutes. Or so i learned.
I took the card back inside and said «I’ve found someone I’d like to meet» as unobtrusively as possible. It was acknowledged, and I was told to wait for a bit. All I could think was «well, Chris. Now you should hope that the pup likes you. Because that’s what matters. You can’t simply adopt one based on looks. Will he be nice??? Will he be warm to human contact? Or will he be wild and roam around the meet & greet area ignoring you, ruining it.» I certainly hoped not. I was oddly the tinyest bit antsy over it.
I was then greeted by a very friendly, outgoing and supportive woman who’s name I am unfortunately forgetting at the moment with long, curly brown hair who told me that I’d selected a puppy that was apparently on Abc10 for one of their little pet of the week spots. He and his 2 siblings had been available as of today, and within 20 minutes or so the other two had been spoken for and they were «surprised he was still here». I walked with her towards the meet & greet with anticipation mounting and he was let loose as i walked toward a bench. He immediately ran towards me. trembling and whining a bit from being incarcerated in such surroundings. pawing at my jeans, he whimpered a bit as i said «you want to come up?» and it was mostly his effort as i brought him up and he slathered my face eagerly before settling into the side of my neck and becoming quiet. I set him down in a bit to see if he would come back and he did pawing me and licking me in the face until i simply laughed and said «okay buddy. you win».
Front Street is the only real place to look in Sacramento. There are others, but its many many times better.

They do not adhere to their mission of helping animals. I brought in an obviously domesticated stray. The staff agreed he was adoptable and was actually convinced the owners would pick him up. I trusted them to take care of the animal.
Instead, they dropped him, a senior black cat, off on my street with a tipped ear — essentially banning him from ever getting adopted — because they didn’t want to deal with him so they labeled him «feral» when he isn’t.
I will never trust them with an animal again, and you shouldn’t either.

I love this place. Everyone is really friendly. I spread the love with a lot of the shelters in the area by donating/​sponsoring and this by far has been the nicest to me! I come here to sponsor animals every year and I’ve never had a bad experience. I was in search for a dog once, but I couldn’t find one that would fit my home and my lifestyle. That’s ok — there’s no rushing into this sort of situation. The staff really care about the animals and that makes me happy!

We recently adopted our first 6 month old male cat from here and we couldn’t be more happier. Adopting from this shelter was super easy and the staff is friendly. I would recommend this place to family and friends

Do not be fooled by them, THIS PLACE KILLS LOTS AND LOTS OF ADOPTABLE ANIMALS!!! I have seen many many reports of dogs (mostly Pit Bulls) being killed for being shy, showing fear (they call it the «whale eye»), and for not enough space. Also many reports of cats being killed for simply having ringworm, which is very treatable. Legally they are required to hold found and surrendered animals for 3 days, but there are also lots of reports of them killing pets before the legal stray hold period is up. Not sure how they are getting away with it, but an internal investigation into their practices really needs to be conducted. This place wants everyone to think they are no-​kill, but sadly they are very far from it!

My husband drove 45 minutes to the shelter to meet and adopt a family dog today. He arrived almost an hour before you closed, and was told that you aren’t showing any more dogs today.
This information should be posted on your website. You just turned away someone willing to save an animal from sleeping another night in a kennel, and turned us away from adopting from you. It’s too bad the only ones that have to suffer from this situation are the animals themselves.

I have volunteered now for this fine shelter for over a year now. I have been a Animal advocate for 8 years now and have volunteered at several other shelters. I wont volunteer anywhere else now as I have experienced the best group of Staff in the greater California area. I trues believe that Gina our director has got it right.
From Intake threw Fosters threw the many staff members everyone cares about each and every animal! I have seen very heroic actions taken by Front Street Animal Staff daily!
They do not claim to be a no kill shelter but again the ones that label themselves as such are misrepresenting themselves to the public. They strive each and every day to be no kill and i believe that one day soon they will be.
Come visit the shelter

One of the happiest days ever as we visited lots of dogs and, at the end of the day, left with official adoption papers for our newest family member — Coco soon-​to-​be «Princess Bella». {3
Staff were amazing, volunteers were fabulous, everyone was helpful, knowledgable, and found out whatever information that they couldn’t answer themselves. Knowing what you don’t know is just as important to helping people — & I greatly respected the patience and kindness displayed by everyone we encountered today.
What I do want to change: The fact that I am not allowed to bring my newest family member home until July 30^th because that was the soonest appointment they had to spay Bella. Do not preach to me about the benefits of spaying/​neutering — I’m not referring to changing THAT fact that I fully support (3 current pets are spayed/​neutered, am bringing home shelter animal, the pet populations absolutely need to be controlled, etc. and etc.).
I should be able to bring the dog home and have a choice to implement a mechanism identified to ensure the animal is spayed within an identified number of days. Within the city limits there is at least one mobile unit available even for individuals who cannot (for whatever odd reason) commit to bringing the pet back for the designated day. If you live too far and can’t bring the animal back, or don’t want to take it beforehand, you have that option to keep the pet sheltered (but this is currently the ONLY way).
But, for those who can save the program MONEY — &, it seems illogical to argue that having to care for these much wanted pets for 14 extra days at the shelter does not add up to a VERY SIGNIFICANT ADDITONAL AND UNNECESSARY EXPENSE — we need to identify a mechanism to make this happen. Create laws to punish the few individuals who adopt, and who very much want to take their pet home, AND who actually will NOT follow the law requiring we bring the pet back on the designated day for the procedure.
For those who live outside of city limits — there may be no option. Pet has to stay sheltered until after procedure.
Within city limits — you return July 30^th. Drop off by 10 am, pick up between 4 – 5 pm. You can’t do that, sorry — pet is required to stay sheltered.
You live within city limits AND you sign commitment to return pet on designated day/​time and pick up on designated day time? Take your pet with you, save the county money that can be used for some other underfunded program — one less animal to need staff care, food and shelter. You don’t return this day and time — the mobile unit will be at your house July 31^st at 9 am and there will be a fine.
Your not there July 31^st at 9 am with the animal, fine will increase. Whatever the cost is to enforce — that’s the fine. If something happens to the dog prior to it being spayed/​neutered (breeding, as one example) = huge fine. I’m not intending to simplify this — it’s obviously not simple, I know this is an ongoing issue for all stakeholders involved. And I know it’s complicated. This isn’t intended to answer the entire problem. But I do want the puppy out of the shelter. If it’s more cost effective to keep them all sheltered for 13 (or however many extra days) then I will be satisfied. I want to see the data though, because that’s extremely hard to conceive as true. Laws might not change in time for Bella, but I plan to see proof of efficacy before I adopt again, or hope to see this issue resolved. Last thing — this is not an issue for the shelter. They’re amazing and fabulous — can’t say that enough. This is bureaucracy that needs fixin’.

Some of the best volunteers in our area work at Front Street. You can tell how dedicated and passionate the staff is within minutes. They have a goal to find forever homes for as many of the animals that arrive there as possible. We got our little mutt from Front Street and it was a first class experience all the way. He’s been with us for two years now and we are so grateful to Front Street for bringing us together.

My boyfriend and I heard about a chow that needed adoption so we immediately came here to see if we could take her home. When we arrived, there were no parking spaces and the shelter was packed with people. There was a volunteer smoking outside and since we’ve never been here before, we decided to ask her if she had any information about the chow. To my surprise, she was super helpful and lead us directly to the back to take a look at the chow. What I appreciated the most was her going through paperwork to get more information she could share with us. 5 stars for the helpful volunteer! We will definitely be back to adopt a dog here :)

I just adopted a puppy and when we went in to talk to the employees we told them that we had a aggressive dog and asked if we should do a meet and greet at the shelter first. One employee told us just to take the puppy home and let the him put its scent everywhere (the house, yard etc) then introduce them freely to one other. This is the wing advice and war definitely the wing thing to do. My dog attacked the puppy. So now because they weren’t introduced properly we have to bring the puppy back. It saddens me because this could have been avoided. Please tell your employees to be careful giving potential adopters advice. Another thing is they neutered him and sent him home with us the same day. The problem with that is the dog isn’t up for an introduction on neutral ground (which is what is recommended when a dog is aggresive) because he was worn out from being neutered.

Front street is doing better compared to a few years ago. However, in lowering their kill rate, I feek like they are letting out some pets that shouldn’t have been made available for adoption. I adopted two kittens (8 weeks old) who happened to be brothers on Nov 1. I had doubts that they were littermates because one was white/​Siamese looking and the other was a grey tabby domestic short hair. But that didn’t matter because both of them had a personality and they were sooo adorable! They had diarrhea ever since they came home. At first, I thought it was just the stress of a new environment and new food that caused it. I took them to the vet and got some probiotics. That didnt work. After a week, just when I was about to visit the vet again, the white cat died all of a sudden without displaying any severe symptoms (just diarrhea). He was still playful and eating a lot just the night before. I was so devastated and I looked for causes on myself and my family members. Was it bad food, not enough attention, or other things? I couldn’t figure out why so I took my other kitten to the vet for testing. After a blood test, an ultrasound, a fecal test (spent hundreds of $), he was diagnosed of FIP, which cats contract in large catteries (i.e. shelter). I never had any cats before so they must have contracted while at the shelter. I called Front Street and they told me «once you have adopted, its your respnsibility.» So… pet owners often get criticized by shelters and rescue groups for surrendering pets and being irresponsible owners. I don’t see how they are taking responsibility, but being a role model for not taking responsibility for their fault! FIP has no cure. I dont want to put him down. I dont want to watch him slowly die, but surrendering him probably means euthanasia. So I am stuck with a broken heart and a sick kitten who’s given max 2 months to live. This has happened to someone else too! Front street: you need to check for coronavirus and eliminate it from your facility, and make sure your adoptable pets are given a thorough health exam before making them available for adoption!
UPDATE:
Boa passed away last Monday the 24^th, my grey tabby Tom just passed away (6 days later). Both of them died without «prior notice.» Tom was jumping all over the place just this afternoon. He started having watery eyes after dinner. During the night, he kept meowing and at 4 AM, he was gone. Ironically, Boa’s name at the shelter was «Ghost,» Tom was «Able,» and I adopted them the day after Halloween.

I have volunteered at a few animal/​dog rescues in and around Sacramento and I must say that Front Street Shelter is the best at what they do. They have gone from a 20% leave live rate to over 85% in just a few years. I am now volunteering there and will continue to for many years to come. Everyone at FSS is kind, caring and only care about the animals, any negative reviews must have been written on the persons bad day. I have never had a bad day in 6 months since volunteering their.

Not so great of an experience today. My husband and I tried to take a dog there today that we found at the park. They were very rude and no help. She actually made us feel we were not trying to help the dog. I adopted animals from this place and my husband donates to this facility. So disappointed in what took place today. After asking for a supervisor I was so upset I ended up leaving.

Renewed my dog’s license at about 3pm. No lines, no wait and no worries. Parking is scarce.

Part 1 of 3 in cat adoption journey:
The Front St shelter was my first spot based on word of mouth in my cat search. I ended up visiting about 4 or 5 times over two weeks. While I didn’t ultimately end up adopting here, I quite liked Front St. and would highly recommend
FACILITIES:
As the first shelter I visited, I was impressed by the cat enclosures (well climate controlled individual glass pens). The cat/​kitten section is reasonably sized with a clean and quickly rotating cast of animals
However, a BIG drawback is lack of socialization rooms like other shelters. I didn’t realize how important this was until I visited other shelters, and realized how differently the cats behaved in your arms versus having free run even in a small room. This is really unfortunate and sort of took this place out of the running for me
COSTS: Cheapest shelter for cats/​kittens at $ 65
HELPFULNESS:
The volunteers were generally very friendly and helpful, but I also rather busy. And as with pretty much every other Sacramento city office, it’s basically impossible to get anyone on the phone here, even if you have the patience to deal with a maze of automated menus. The volunteers suggested not even bothering to call…
OVERALL:
Clean, cheap, friendly shelter with the glaring weakness of lack of good socialization room

From the facilities to the volunteers — LOVE this place. Yes, it can get a little communicatively goofy with so many people working there and there may be some confusion in protocol but in the end, they all want the adopter to walk away with a positive and successful adoption.
Dogs and cats are housed together when they can be — love that! They had music playing in the dog kennels. Speaking of kennels… this shelter has indoor/​outdoor access and they are BIG kennels compared to other shelters in neighboring cities that I’ve see. The animals all seemed relatively relaxed (as one can be in a shelter right?) and the volunteer we toured with was very knowledgable about the dogs. Great place and highly recommend for adoption!

We got our boy, Luke, from this shelter. he is everything we were hoping to get in a dog. he was in foster care and there was a hard time trying to get in touch with the ‘foster parent’ but after inquiring a few times we met up and loved him. he is timid and may have been abused or just has separation anxiety from being a stray but he’s adjusting a little more each day. the adoption fee was half off at the time so we got a neutered, micro-​chipped, up to date on shots doggy for $ 42.50 and a collar, leash, harness and food from the foster parent. we also got a $ 200 gift certificate from grateful dog and the foster parent had him in a basics training class at petco. we couldn’t be happier with our baby boy :)

I don’t know where else in the world you can adopt a cat that’s been spayed or neutered, micro-​chipped, and vaccinated for $ 5, but you can get one here or at any other Sacramento shelter on Feline Friday (every Friday).
I came in hoping to find a cat to adopt. It was a little confusing to find the entrance, but once I was in, everyone was really helpful and friendly. They made me take a short survey that asked strange questions like, is your house more like a carnival or a library? Um… what?
I told the lady who was working with me that I wanted a cat that was older than one year but not too old, and female. She didn’t try to question me or talk me into something I didn’t want. She just showed me all the cats that fit that description. I had planned on getting a domestic short-​hair, but they had this black cat that had been there for three months and was starting to lose hair from the stress of being there so long. They told me that they wanted to get rid of her so badly that they would waive the $ 5 fee. Seriously? Even better. Well, that cat really liked me, and I kind of have a soft spot for people/​animals that need help more than others I think, so of course I took her.
The process was pretty easy. It took less than fifteen minutes to finish up all of the paperwork, although it was an additional 15 minutes when I came back to pick her up a few hours later. They also offer free engraved tags when you adopt a pet, but I didn’t take advantage of this because I was still thinking of a name.
Some of the workers are a little quirky, but I think they are volunteers, and they were all pretty nice. They have a pretty good «return» policy, where you can bring your pet back within thirty days without having to pay a surrender fee (otherwise it’s $ 50).
Bonus, they give you a voucher to get your first vet visit for free.

There’s a parking lot in front with one entry and one exit with great possibility of drivers that don’t get it or don’t care.
We’ve gone to this shelter several times and each time it had been pretty busy. It took several different visits until we found a dog that we liked and liked us back. When we adopted our dog, a family also wanted to adopt her as well and as we were filling out our papers, one of the volunteers pointed at us and told the family we were already adopting the dog they were inquiring about and that was funny and uncomfortable at the same time because they had small children and the family looked all upset that the dog they wanted was taken and HERE WE WERE! doing paperwork in front of them to finalize it.
You didn’t have to point us out. Just sayin’.
There’s always new animals there. The staff is good about using social networking. I ‘like’ them on Facebook and see them pimpin’ out animals on my newsfeed trying to find them homes or some community support.
Our times there, we thought it was ran well with some caring volunteers. One of the volunteers even had something about saving animals tattooed on her. When we found the dog for us, we had some time with her, we had to bring our other dog to meet her to see if he liked her, they asked us good questions to see if we were a good home for placement. It was a good experience. Adoption fees vary. We spun a wheel and got some dollars off but, even if we got to name our price for adoption. we’d still go big because you’re just taking money out of their pocket. It’s a shelter that takes in animals and finds them new homes. Our dog was microchipped and received some vaccinations. She wasn’t spayed because they were backlogged but we had a later appointment for her to get spayed that was included in the adoption fee.
It was tough going through time and again trying to find a dog but we eventually found one and she’s been a great addition to our family. Rescuing an animal is the way to go.