Humane Animal Treatment

I've been to HATS a lot, and I feel that the one-star rating given was cruel. HATS is amazing for both the animals, and the people involved. It's unfair to rate a place so low if the treatment of the animals is good, even if the customer service is bad (which it isn't.) I was unfortunate enough to witness a return of a dog to the shelter, and all of the staff were genuinely heartbroken that the dog hadn't found its forever home. Lots of boxer mixes and cats. Don't shy away from this place because of the literal novella written by the other reviewer.

The treatment of customers here is AWFUL. The animals/atmosphere for adoption is nice enough, but don't bother looking at a dog that isn't available right away. And by this, I mean if there isn't a sign on the kennel saying ADOPTABLE! just keep moving. Half of the staff will bend over backward to talk to you about an animal(always talk to a woman with an eyebrow piercing for anything you actually want done), but the other half was crap. I went in there and told them I was very invested in a dog and even came every day to spend three or more hours with it, all the while having to fight tooth and nail to see/have a chance to touch it by aforementioned staff. Other people could come in and walk it or play with the same dog as long as they wanted, because one of the staff liked them or had some type of association with them. Adoption is left to pulling a name out of a bowl, to which i say this: BRING YOUR FRIENDS. None of the staff will tell you this, in fact, they will only discourage you from the one you want/give you the run around about everything, but their policy for adoption is NOT name drawing for people who actually want the dog. I arrived to adopt the dog at eight AM for a nine o'clock adoption, and a woman came in bragging how she posted on facebook for help in the drawing, and proceeded to blatantly cheat other interested parties by having a group of her friends/son put their name into the drawing. When a group of us said something to the management about the unfair advantage, we were told "We're sorry you've been misinformed, but our policy is that you can bring your friends to help you get the dog. Our job is to get the dog out of the door and to a home.. we cant help the customers moral standards or what they do with the animal once their name has been drawn." I can tell you now, the woman knew nothing of this policy. She had shown up the morning before during one of the hours i visited, and played for a few minutes then left. Given everything that happened, I will NOT be volunteering or going to this place again. People leave misleading/poor reviews online all the time, yeah, and a lot of them are from disgruntled and sore-losing customers, but I assure you this is not a first time ordeal with them here. There are many accounts of problems people have had with a guy who worked in back(he acted like everything was a hassle and would tell people they couldnt interact with the dogs for a variety of reasons.. even ones that were adoptable) as well as with adoptions that had multiple interested owners. Problem is, they don't seem invested enough in the animal itself that they'll dish it out to anyone... even when it means allowing a stacked gamble for a dog.