Berkeley Animal Care Services

I’ve been looking for a small dog for a few weeks when I found a post on Nextdoor that someone had found a cute little Chihuahua mix that had been tied to a bench at a Pickleball court in Berkeley. Fell in love with her photo and reached out to the woman who found her. She’d let me know that she had taken them to the Berkeley animal care and would be available for adoption soon. So I reached out to them with an email and they let me know that she’d be available Saturday morning at 10 AM. She hadn’t even been named yet. They called her 26. It took a couple of days but she’s come out of her shell. She’s just a great dog such a lover. I am extremely happy with my experience with the Berkeley animal care shelter. And yes, I’ve named her Pickle!

Where do I start? These people have really big hearts. Before adopting our dog they asked us multiple times about our background, what kind of home we will give him, our experience with dogs etc. they really wanted to make sure we spent time with him before we took him home so they had us play with him and take him on a walk for an hour or two. Then we asked for a military discount and they ended up giving him to us for free! Fully vaccinated and neutered! They even gave us all the information we needed for him with regards to his health 10 days after being neutered and his proof of rabies vaccination and everything. They answered all of our questions and in general all of the staff seem to care so deeply about the animals. Unfortunately they couldn’t tell us much about his background, but

Very unwelcoming. They saw me come in smiling, literally ignored me, 2 people. One women and one guy. I even approached to say hi to a dog they had, nothing. I really wanted to walk out but needed to know if they'd accept some medications I had. Finally another 3rd lady at the far end asked what I needed help with. I only hope the medications are put to good use.

I must preface this low review by saying they had the dog for about 4 days before we took her in. We adopted a sweet girl from this shelter a few weeks ago. We were given VERY little info about her background (seems as though they BARELY asked any questions to the family that surrendered her). She was so badly matted she had to be fully shaved down after we took her in. They did not tell us what food she eats, they didn't ask us ANYTHING about our home situation, didn't ask if we've had a dog before, didn't ask if we have any pets currently, nothing. For all they know we could have been pet hoarders, or completely inexperienced, or had a tiny apartment where no one's ever home, or immediately turned around and sold her to a fighting ring or something awful like that. I think all they care

***Update***Ms. Taggy passed peacefully in November of 2022. She was 12 years old. ***Update 2019*** Taggy adopted her human in 2011 and she is doing extraordinarily well. Taggy loves midnight cuddles, pate tuna, and sleeps nearly 19 hours out of the day. Thank you, Berkeley Animal Care Services for giving me the greatest gift of all - companionship. Post from 2013: Taggy, aka, Penelope is very happy!