Spca of Upstate Ny Queensbury, New York

Unfortunately not too friendly on the phone, customer service much yo be desired

The employers were very helpful Especially Sandy!

Lady is very rude and disrespectful supposed to be a supervisor and she treats people like that. Don't call this place and waste your time.

Great place to adopt a pet that really needs a home. Staff is great!!

Our family has adopted a total of four puppies from the SPCA of Upstate NY. The staff there are the most loving, caring people and the wonderful temperaments of each of our dogs can be attributed to the care they got from their first shelter days. I highly recommend that if you are looking for a new pet, adopt don't shop. You won't be disappointed! Thank you SPCA for all that you do!

The lady said I can't adopt if my husband is there..very rude & not friendly at all

We adopted our newest buddy from the SPCA this week after visiting multiple shelters and rescues. I was impressed with how friendly the staff and volunteers were throughout. The adoption process was thorough and took about ten days; it included neutering, a meet and greet with our other dogs, and some follow-up care for the puppy, all of which made me feel like they really care about what happens to their adoptees.

The older lady that works here is extremely rude and nasty.

There’s something seriously wrong with these people. Beware.

I did a fundraiser for the SPCA and they were so kind and were so thankful.

This place is extremely unfriendly to potential adopters. My son is just under 21 and as his mother I was not able to adopt a kitten for him even though he had demonstrated significant interest (6 hours in the car back and forth 3 times from Burlington VT), shared all the required paperwork, and I have successfully adopted 3 cats over past 15 years from North Country SPCA in E-town, NY. I am a stellar owner - and have paperwork showing my cats go annually to vet for all shots. My advice is to donate and adopt from North Country SPCA. They are open 6 days a week (not 3) and are much more accommodating matching pets and potential owners. Last I visited Queensbury SPCA on a 97 degree day and dogs were being placed in small outside cages on concrete pads with no shade.

Because my cat is there

I would give them a zero if possible. PLEASE POST YOUR EXPERIENCE ON PETSMARTS SITE TO WARN OTHER PEOPLE ABOUT YOUR ADOPTION EXPERIENCE W QUEENSBURY SPCA! Please note that these rescue groups do this to make money! They flip large volumes of dogs under the pretense of rescuing them and make an enormous profit at the expense of the new owner. If they really believe in what they were doing they would spay the animals, test for Parvo and ear mites! They don’t !They sell dogs with major health issues! There is no way a veterinarian exams these dogs prior to bringing them to the Pet Smart adoption clinic. Our adopted was 6 months older than they told me, and ended up being extremely sick. The adopted dog got my other dog extremely sick as well. The adopted dog had severe ear mites which of course my other dog got. BEWARE!!

Some of the staff at Upstate SPCA are kind, patient, and go above and beyond in accommodating prospective adopters. For the rest of the staff, I can only say that I hope that they work better with the animals than they do with the people looking to adopt. While it is understandable that things have changed in 2020 due to COVID, Upstate SPCA has simply failed to adapt. Their website and Facebook page provide no public-facing information about their current adoption process, which includes making an appointment, filling out an application that is not made available online, and doing a last minute vet check at the time of your appointment (rather than prior to). When we mentioned this lack of information to a staff member at the rescue, we received a weird excuse. Apparently a former employee still holds the password to update the website, so it “cannot be updated”. If you are wondering why they can’t just do a password reset in order to get the information out there…so am I. In 2020, no business owner, 501(c)3 or otherwise, should be this tech-illiterate. Lacking this information, we drove a distance with the hope of adopting. We were blown away by the kindness of the staff who were willing to accommodate our drop-in visit. We met with a puppy, hit it off, filled out the paperwork, and paid the adoption fee. We returned within a few days to do a meet-and-greet with our adult dog, and things went well. We thought that we were on our way. Upstate SPCA holds a long-standing policy that dogs are only sent home after healing from their spay/neuter surgery, which must be done with a specific veterinarian. Currently, all surgeries and the entire adoption operation is on hold due to the vet’s vacation. We were told this during the adoption process and warned that it could be up to a month before we could bring our puppy home. Through our adoption process, however, we happened to meet an owner who recently adopted from Upstate SPCA. The rescue made a concession to break policy and allow this owner to bring their dog home until the spay/neuter surgery could be scheduled. We were hoping it might be possible for us to do the same. Why should one customer be treated differently than any other? When we tried to follow up with the rescue, seeking information on when we could expect to hear more about a spay/neuter surgery, or to ask about bringing the puppy home until then, we were met with nothing but attitude. When I pointed this out, rescue staff turned me over to the director, who quickly turned hostile. After refusing to adopt to us (based solely on the fact that I said, "you don't need to be rude"), she offered me a refund and requested that I provide my credit card over the phone. Again, in 2020, no business owner, 501(c)3 or otherwise should be this tech-illiterate. I refused to provide my credit card information over the phone, explaining that this breaks PCI compliance and that the rescue has the ability to issue a refund without it. The director informed us that I can provide a credit card number over the phone, or consider my $400 adoption fee a donation before promptly hanging up. We have been uncomfortable with every step of this adoption process - from the lack of information about when we can bring our dog home, to the fact that adoptive pet owners are not treated equally, to the incredible hostility of the director. This is an operation run by paid staff, not volunteers, so I am struggling to justify the lack of professionalism. Again, some staff here would go above and beyond. But they seem to be held back by their director’s lack of leadership. If you want to support a local SPCA or adopt from a no-kill shelter, please, save yourself the trouble of trying to work with Upstate SPCA and go elsewhere.

Professional, caring, and a great source of education.

Just an altogether great experience. We have now adopted 2 dogs from them. Would recommend them to anyone wishing to adopt.

A horrible experience that I’ll never forget. We were so excited to stop in and look at puppies! My husband baby and I walked through the door hoping to see the one we wanted to adopt. We were unaware the doors were supposed to be locked due to Covid and the minute the nasty lady at the counter saw us she scolded us for coming in like it was our fault. The place seemed chaotic- employees running around like chickens with their heads cut off. Next that same lady interrupted me before i even got two words out saying we needed an appointment. I said I’m interested in a particular puppy.Rudely she said “the collie mix?? GONE!!” I truly feel sorry for the animals there.

Could give a 0 for a review if I could. Was supposed to adopt a kitten and they had him on hold for us because they needed information from our vet about our other animals to make sure they are up to date and everything. We got them up to date on all vaccinations and once we did all that we got ready to get our kitten and they called us and said we can’t adopt through them because the vet records are inconsistent( when we had all the paperwork)and then we said okay well we hope the kittens find good homes and the manager snapped at us on the phone and was very rude when all we wanted to do was give a kitten a loving home. So now a kitten will be stuck in a tiny cage until someone else comes along which a lot of the time the won’t and it doesn’t help this place has awful reviews on top of this one.

Yes, we were just going to go look at some cats at the Saratoga Petsmart a few months after our longtime cat had passed away. But you never can go just look, can you? The Queensbury SPCA was there and were showing off some cats they had rescued from a kill shelter in East Tennessee. We ended up coming home with 2 cats: a gray tiger tabby and a small calico. It's not a simple procedure to adopt cats, there are lots of questions to be answered and paperwork to be filled out. However, you can tell that this is done with care to place these pets in a forever home that will remain "forever". You can tell that the SPCA team loves these animals and work hard to find the right adoptees for each pet. After some months with our new cats, we can't believe the joy these well-adapted and confident creatures have brought to our lives. Thank you SPCA of Upstate NY for the work that you do!

My husband and I had a wonderful experience adopting our puppy from the SPCA. We saw her posted on their Petfinder account, called ahead to make sure she was still available (and answered a few screening questions), went to the shelter to meet her, filled out a brief application, and picked her up a few days later once she recovered from her spay surgery. It was great to have a dedicated meet and greet room to play with her at the shelter when we went in to see her and decide on adoption. The staff were busy, but were very helpful throughout the process. Everything went really smoothly, and the SPCA of Upstate New York would be my first choice to adopt from again.

Horrible experience with this rescue. The staff are incompetent and the director is a mean, micromanaging nightmare. Find your furever friend elsewhere.

The big dogs not taken care of and one of the workers were VERY rotten I will never go back again

The people here aren’t very nice to younger couples looking to get a dog. Seems like they looked for every possible way to not let us rescue a puppy. This is why people avoid places like these and just goto a breeder.

Such wonderful people here who care so much about the animals!

This place is the absolute worst. Called to ask if a puppy was still available. Get told yes. Ask if we can put a hold on one. Get told they don’t do holds. Then when we arrived we get informed that he’s already on hold for a family that’s waiting for approval from their landlord. So we get introduced to another puppy. My four year old and my girlfriend falls in love with. Then on our way to Walmart to get a pet carrier because one is needed or they won’t let you leave without one. But no one says anything about it until we’ve agreed to do the paperwork. We get a phone call telling us we can have him still. But we wouldn’t be able to take him tonight. So now I have a very upset four year old. And a very upset girlfriend. They have ruined the whole puppy getting experience for me and my family. Never will I ever let anyone I know walk through the doors here

Great staff and was upfront about rules. I was able to get a great dog who has been our best friend for the past year. Fill out the paperwork and be honest and you will have no issues. I am a younger person and dont buy into any bogus stuff people are saying here. They are looking out for the animals long term well being and I dont regret going here over a breeder at all. Thank you.

Amazing friendly and very helpful!

We had a lovely experience with this shelter. I called ahead, explained what we were looking for, and got my vet reference before going. We visited 2 days later and brought home a our new family member. I have nothing but good things to day about this SPCA. Thank you for the good work that you do!!!

Love it we came home with beautiful puppy Taylor

We adopted a puppy and they were excellent with a true sense of caring after we had to put down our last dog of 12 yrs old... before we left with our new puppy they gave it a bath and trimmed his nails ..I highly recommend this facility.