Dspca Reviews 12

My partner and I went today in hopes of a friendly and educational experience to learn about the adoption process, while we both have our own pets, we were looking to adopt something together.
We were very let down by the condescending nature of the staff and wouldn’t recommend this to anyone else excited about the adoption experience.
When we asked to learn more about the process for both cats and dogs we were immediately told we were not suitable to adopt certain breeds as we had no experience with them. While we do understand their strictness we expressed we were more than happy to do any necessary research and take all the time their process required, both for their peace of mind and the animals safety! But we were instantly told no. (How else can we gain any experience?)
The staff in the “cattery” were condescending for my lack of knowledge on FIV+ cats even though their signs told us to ask questions if interested to learn.
I would recommend doing as much of the process as possible online as the staff were so off putting that we will be trying other adoption shelters, which is very upsetting to us as they make it seem so impossible to bring an animal stuck in a shelter to a loving home.

Have been going up to the DSPCA the last few weeks in the hope of rescuing a dog. We met with a beautiful beagle bulldog cross “star” and filled out an application for her but unfortunately there was a family ahead of us. They fostered her for a few days to see how she got on with their other dog. Received a phone call last week to say star was available again as it didn’t work out. We went up last Tuesday met with star again and organised to take her on Friday for the weekend to see how we got on. We were made aware that star had a habit of play biting which didn’t phase us. We had great fun with her, playing with and doting on her…lots of play biting and stealing everything thing she could for a chase🤣a friend called in and star didn’t like it started growling and barking jumping up at her face(bit scary). She was brought for 2 walks on Saturday and on both occasions showed some aggression towards 2 other people! Sunday morning star was pulling on a blanket I lifted her by her harness to stop her from ripping it…she growled jumped up and bit my hand! (Not play biting) we decided to call and arrange to take her back.

On our arrival be were met with some hostility by staff! We were told the dog was not aggressive! The member of staff that we had dealt with came outside to talk to us with another older woman who we hadn’t met before. As we began talking to this woman about our experience good and bad she talked over us time and time again!!! I’ve never met a more rude condescending person in my life!!! She told us she had a hound and thats just the way that breed were! I was telling her about the fun we had with star that she was a stubborn madam 😂she replied in annoyance “no dog is stubborn”. As she continued to talk over us every time we tried to give feed back I looked at the younger staff member who looked like a deer caught in headlights!!! (Like she was afraid to speak)This woman should not be meeting with people!!! It was hard enough bringing star back as we were very hopeful we could give her a good home to then be spoken to and disrespected by this person! We had hoped our feedback would be welcomed 🤷🏼‍♀️

Absolutely disgusting behaviour!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I really hope star can get the professional training she needs is order to find a suitable home as she is such a special girl ❤️

I'm a big supporter of the DSPCA and have adopted a dog from them and got wonderful support when my dog passed away.
About two weeks ago I brought two plastic dog beds up to Mt Venus Road to donate.
The girl on reception just said...we don't take plastic beds you can put those in the bin!!! We only use the raised beds.
I left, but the encounter has bothered me since.
If she had maybe said well we dont take those beds but maybe some other shelter who depend on donations to survive might be glad of them but no...
I will still continue to support but if that's what the first point of contact is like in Mt Venus well...
Disappointed

I contacted this organisation for advice or help on two lost and abandoned cats that had been at our house for almost a week. I sent images of the animals to them and reported that they were less than 6 months old and appeared to have been dumped or abandoned. We could not keep them as we have our 16 year old cat and terrier cross dog.

I explained my concern for the cats and that we had given them some food and could not find their owners locally. The response? 'Stop feeding the cats, they will go away eventually.'

You want me to be intentionally cruel to vulnerable animals to get rid of them when you are supposed to be an animal protection agency.

Used to be great place for a walk, and train own dog in fence closed grounds (there were 2 separate closed areas), where it was safe to train dogs that otherwise are not allowed in the parks, because of BSL. As for a walk around perimeter, would be nice if there were bins for bags placed, but that was known for many years now, and successfully ignored by greedy DSPCA management.

We adopted a cat from here and all was well , paid our fee which covered the neutering and microchip only when we got home the issues started . Didn't take us long to realize the cat was deaf and had 3 broken toes , none of which had been pointed out to us (we would have still adopted her anyway). Our local vet wasn't surprised by the DSPCA's lack of transparency at all as he had lots of poor experience with them . They also got her age wrong by many , many years. Then the phone calls began , asking for donations. At first I fobbed them off , but then they kept calling back, daily , for 13 days straight until my wife unloaded on them over the phone one day . I'm sure they do good, but our experience was very poor .

DSPCA has helped me get through some rough times but I am a volunteer at the moment and all these other reviews are wrong

Disgraceful behaviour/ complete rip off. Booked my dog in for a Christmas stay in Feb 23, as i knew how busy kennels are over The Christmas. 10 day stay, €324. Never used a kennel before, which I did tell them. Anyway, paid my 50% deposit. They did remind me to vaccinate my dog and get kennel cough. However, I wasn't aware that it was a live vaccine and there was a time frame. I got the vaccine, it was too late - my bad. I should have looked into it. By this time I had paid in full €324.00
DSPCA would not issue any kind of refund. They just basically told me it was my fault it in there terms and conditions and that's it good luck finding some one to take him. The kept All of my fees and provided no service. Absolutely disgusting behaviour. At least refund 50%, it was a genuine mistake on my part.
I will never support the DSPCA again, absolute charlatans. They kept the full fees. I made a mistake and it cost me €324- absolute disgrace

i have a really strong love for animals and they always instantly trust and are drawn to me, i have rescue dogs my whole life , i decided i wanted to be a volunteer worker helping abused animals and looked on this site , first thing i seen, first plan sign up donation plan 750 , second plan sign up donation fee 2000, wow just wooowww , that is shoccking, i have not heard much good abot the dspca but to offer your daily time up to volunteer to help these poor animals and have tp pay them that amount, that blows my mind, ill pass and continue to look for another rescue place

What a horrible place, my wife had fed this cat for 6 years, morning and evening, when he was gone somewhere she couldnt sleep, but cat always came back. He lived with another cat and his brother ( we took that cat home) but for these two my wife built them solid houses outside. Until last week she noticed something was wrong with cats leg, we rang two charities. One told me to contact dspca, i was so happy they came to collect a cat next morning, my wife was in tears when the cat was taken away, but she knew cat would be back, we sent emails for updates, rang them every morning. We were told the leg wasnt broken but the cat had FIV ( i understand that they live outside ). I wanted the cat back, i even considered adoption. I drove there, only were told, the cat was killed. I asked for a body, ( we cremated our dog last year, i knew place) but no. We couldnt. Now imagine my wife couldnt live when the cat sometimes was missing for night or two, and now its an empty house. Spring coming, cat is dead

We had an upsetting and shocking experience with DSPCA. Our beloved outdoor cat of over 13 years suddenly turned ill and we had the DSPCA come out to catch her and treat her at their vets. As she was a wild cat (but very friendly, like a pet) we couldn’t catch her ourselves to get her treated at our local vets, so we had to call the DSPCA. I wish now we had gone to our own vet instead as we would have been given the time to say goodbye to her, and bury her in our garden that she loved so much.

After she was caught by the DSPCA, he said we would have an update later that evening. No phone call was received. Then we rang the next day for an update and they said they would ring us back after retrieving the vet’s notes. They rang back a few hours later with the vet’s notes to tell us our cat was fine and would be kept in for a few days under observation...

A few days later we decided to call up and see how our cat was doing (we even bought a cat carrier to bring her home in). After much confusion from the reception staff, we were eventually told that our cat had been put to sleep on the day that she arrived to the DSPCA after her condition deteriorated. They couldn’t tell us what she died from. We were in total shock when they told us so bluntly. We had been told on the phone the day AFTER she died that she was fine and there was nothing wrong with her! I find this whole scenario so bizarre, hurtful, and upsetting. Why did the person on the phone lie to us deliberately? To tell someone their cat is alive when they knew it had died the day before? It's so disrespectful.

We mentioned our experience to friends and family, who also said they had bad experiences with the DSPCA - but nothing quite like this scenario! We're still so in shock and upset over this.

Recently I have contacted them about a hedgehog in danger, next to the highway just a bit to the South from Dublin.
Their only reply was if this is in Dublin and when I wrote that it is not, but just a bit to the South, they haven't even replied anymore.
Total waste of time.