4 Paws For Ability
Reviews and Complaints

I asked a local foster to watch my sons autism assistance dog for a day or two because I was having bad thoughts and severe side effects from new meds my psychiatrist put me on. I was going to the local ER and didn't know if I would be put into the hospital or not. Needless to say they said it was the meds and released me only about 4-5 hours later. A note was sent to 4 paws later explaining about the meds. I planned on picking up Godzilla from the local foster the next evening...but before I could pick him up I received a called from Jennifer lutes, one of the trainers at 4 paws, she informed me Godzilla would be going back to the 4 paws facility in Ohio. I asked why and she gave me no explanation. To date 4 paws has had Godzilla for three weeks now with no explanation other than the following from Karen shirk...Godzilla is not at 4 paws, no on will talk to me and a discussion has to take place with a board of volunteers before they will respond to me. I have asked what they are discussing, what's going on and I get no response. My son Noah is absolutely distraught over not having his dog. He refuses to leave the house, go anywhere, do anything, etc because he doesn't have his Godzilla dog. I have a signed contract with 4 paws for Godzilla and I've not broken any of the contract rules. We just want our Godzilla back. Karen even threaten me with calling the police if I came to 4 paws to talk with her...she won't give me any kind of answers nor will Jennifer lutes. I need some help and don't have money for an attorney.

I have worked in the company 4 Paws for Ability Inc. It wasn’t my dream work, but I was interested in this field. However, the staff wasn’t friendly or helpful. Also they didn’t speak with the customers properly and didn’t give all necessary advices and medicine to the owners of the pets. I still have no idea why they did it, but I stopped to work there after 3 months.

Please do not support this organization in anyway. They don't care about the dogs they breed, they just care about the $15, 000 check they receive for every dog. They treat their dogs like property, keeping them in crates in cramped conditions. Their dogs don't even go potty on grass, their forced to go in dog runs and run and poo on gravel. All their dogs have extremely poor breeding, as they obviously select dogs to breed and have no idea what they're doing. All of their dogs get hip dysplasia by the time their 2-5 years old which is NOT acceptable for a working service dog. They claim they're worth 22k, when in reality they're probably worth $2000. The dogs are kept in crates and only trained at the facility, so the dogs have horrible behavioral issues when they're in a house. I've also noticed the dogs have developed psychological issues from sitting in crates all their lives. The dogs actually get 2 months of training from the professional trainers, when other REAL service dog organizations have their dogs in professional training for 2 YEARS. They also train their dogs to alert by barking, which is not acceptable in public. It's a shame this organization gets so much personal relations, because the CEO is not professional at all, nor does she know how to run a non-profit, let alone take care of dogs properly. Overall, I would never recommend this horrid organization. Dogs in shelters are treated better and have more room to move around. Just disgusting. And I feel so sorry for the families that had no idea and worked so hard to raise 15k for a dog that's less than mediocre.

Do they just allow any college student the chance to raise these dogs? I have been watching this girl who is in my class yell, grip, and push around a young puppy and I can tell that everyone else just looks at her like she is crazy. I am a huge animal lover and it is ridiculous to me that a paws for ability dog is being treated like that. That should NOT be allowed. She should have this puppy taken away from her!

I stumbled onto their web page through Pet Finder and they stated they were in dire need of foster homes. So I applied and filled out all the paperwork to be a foster. After waiting over a week I was told that I was not allowed to foster because one of my dogs was too old and they were afraid it would upset the puppy. My old dog is a Lab, the same dogs they use in their program, and he is also a retired service dog. So why aren't they concerned about when their dogs get older in the homes they place them with?

In addition to this they state that they use rescued dogs, but in fact when I was talking with them, they said that most of the dogs they train for service use are from their breeding program, NOT rescues. I think they should be removed from Pet Finder especially if they are breeding more dogs, and not rescuing and adopting them. Isn't that just adding to the dog population program?