Bergen County Animal Shelter & Adoption Center

Having volunteered at numerous shelters back home in CA, I was eager to check out the shelter closest to me here in NJ after moving. I was dismayed to see how little the staff seemed to care about finding these animals homes. It is my experience that the best practice for finding an animal a home is in a person's contact with that animal. How else will you bond with them or assess whether they'll get along with any other pets or family members at home? Here you aren't allowed to hold any of the animals without first filling out an extensive form. This can take up to 30 minutes. Then, once that form is filled out the amount of time you get with the animal is dreadfully slim. In order to find animals loving homes you need to actually encourage adoption. After my visit I drove to two other local shelters, neither of which had this baffling protocol. If you're interested in adopting please avoid this shelter, there are better ones in the area.
1 7 years ago (01-05-2018)

I have a 16.5 year old cat from here who’s still going strong. However, when I adopted him as a 5 week old kitten, he’d already been neutered. A little on the young side. Anyway, he’s the most amazing cat there ever was.
4 7 years ago (03-05-2018)

This is the best no-kill shelter. The staff care relentlessly for the animals. The two women who run the kitten foster program go above and beyond. They foster over 400 kittens each summer, which means these young kittens live in homes with families until they weigh enough to be spayed or neutered, then they are put up for adoption. The kittens are socialized, cared for, and well-loved by many. It’s an incredibly successful program. We got our kitten from BCAS and couldn’t be happier. They even hand-knit a baby blanket to send home with our Little Lady Lily. We’ve kept in touch for our kitty questions and vet recommendations. This place cares for all animals (humans included) and has given our family the greatest gift - love, and a cat.
5 8 years ago (18-11-2017)

A few months ago, my husband and I adopted two kittens (or so we thought). We got each of them about a month or two apart. We were told that the first kitten we got was 100% healthy, but we took him to the vet afterwards anyways to make sure. He came out positive with Bartonellosis (Cat scratch disease). We've spent over $700 on treatment since. However, we went back to the same place to get him a buddy because we figured it was something the staff just accidentally missed. When we went back for the second cat, we were told he was in fact 7 months old and had no medical issues. So far we've found out from multiple vets that not only is he much older (12 years!), but he has an eye infection, twitches like crazy for reasons we dont know of yet, and was so small because he was severely malnourished. The people who guided us through the process were really quick to check everything off, and when they took him to the back to "examine" him, they came out only 5 minutes later saying he was perfectly healthy. One other thing is that when I wrote to the shelter on Facebook after adopting them to find out where they came from, all they replied was that they were strays. I really wanted to know because one of our cats was having behavioral issues that was obviously stemming from something he'd been through. They couldn't have known which cats I was talking about since I only gave them the cats names, and everyone knows that names in pretty much every shelter are recycled. They could've asked for pictures of their documents or even something as simple as the ID number on the chip they initially put on them before taking them home. I attached a picture of the conversation As for the staff, we came across some people who were a little weird, BUT we did meet a handful of amazing people whose names I wish I got. This place is also a no-kill shelter, and that's always a plus. That's the only reason I gave two stars. So, this is all to say to please invest your time and money at another shelter. There's are some nearby that I hear are so much better. If you still end up coming here, just be mindful and take everything with a grain of salt when you plan to adopt your future baby.
2 7 years ago (07-05-2018)

I adopted a beautiful pit named Hoover. We love him so much! his transition was uneventful. Thank you Vicky and all of the great staff for telling my family Hoover's story. Special thanks to Nancy for the home visit and Hoover's personalized blanket.😘😘
5 8 years ago (01-12-2017)