Snake River Animal Shelter

Thank you Megan! We just knew that he was meant to be with you! We are grateful for your support of our shelter.

Thank you so much Emma!! :)

Hi Ryan, I’m sorry about your experience. We are passionate about reducing animal stress and the spread of disease amongst our shelter and are following the now-prevalent national technique of bringing dogs to their meet-and-greets with potential adopters while our cat kennels are open for viewing and cats can be removed with staff assistance. Visiting animals at the exterior of their kennels does not reduce stress nor is considered to be socialization in our industry due to the barrier of the kennel. But do not fear, staff and volunteers are walking and socializing the animals daily. It’s also the policy in nearly every shelter in the country that staff open up kennels, as animals can have a negative reaction and potentially hurt a person. Our staff are trained to recognize the signs that an animal might react negatively. We just want to keep everyone safe. We changed our policy in October 2023 and have only seen an increase in adoptions, although it’s been an adjustment for the community that used to a “petting zoo” type environment. We are an animal adoption center. We are creating a page on our website with links related to research on this topic to better educate the community. Our employees present for your interaction knew that you were upset therefore I had already spoken to them before you left this review. They never intended to be rude and are sorry that the style of communication didn’t create the educational and positive interaction that they were seeking. They should have offered you the available volunteer opportunities- walking a dog, taking a dog out of the kennel for you and brushing and playing with it (if the meet and greet room is open) or bringing you a cat to cuddle. We discussed where we could have done better. Please accept our apologies.