PAWS New England
Reviews and Complaints

On 4/28/19, my wife brought home a dog, Bunny Hop, from PAWS New England. I did not want this dog, since prior to getting married, my wife and I agreed that we would have kids or a dog, but not both, and we already have three lovely daughters. I am disappointed in the home vetting process of PAWS New England. There was no home visit by a PAWS New England volunteer to make sure the dog was wanted by all adults in the household. If a home visit were done, it also would have revealed that we did not have a fenced yard for the dog. Finally, I'm sure there was a better and more loving home for the dog out there somewhere, as the dog does not get adequate exercise. In the first couple of months, my wife did walk the dog, but the frequency soon faded. In the last two years, I have seen my wife take the dog for a walk less than 10 times! I'm a teacher who is home all summer, so this isn't a case of her walking the dog when I'm at work. This dog deserves more love and attention than this! For the sake of their dogs, PAWS New England really needs to improve their vetting process. Was any attempt made to verify that the information on the adoption form was accurate? Why couldn't they have had a local volunteer do a quick home visit?

I adopted my min/pin during the pandemic and was told she was housebroken and under a year. When we received her she had mange, multiple infections and my vet says she is well over 2 years. When I contacted the cofounder Joanne she was abusve and hostile at best. Do not adopt from this "recscue", sadly after $500 it's clear this is a reascue all about the money and the hustle and not avout the dogs at all. Thankfully my wife an I are dog people and can deal with what we've been given but I fear for anyone who trusts what they're sold on petfinder. It's a sham.

I was approved and adopted a puppy through this company and it was a rushed and unprofessional experience from the get-go. I love my dog (i've only had him for a week and a half) but he arrived from transport with mange, a fungal and bacterial infection, a yeast infection, roundworm and an ear infection that requires two expensive antibiotics. According to their contract I was to receive my dog with a "clean bill of health" but in the week that i've had him we've been to the vet 3 times and have spent almost $1000 in vet and prescription fees.
The vet informed me that these infections were long overdue to be looked at and should have been taken care of before the dog was put on transport. I reached out to the adoption coordinator, foster, had adoption coordinator and anyone else's email I could get ahold of and everyone just passed the buck. "dogs will be dogs"
I am so happy to have this little guy in my life but buyer beware; this company does not adhere to its own policies. I asked for some of the vetting to be covered and have heard nothing back. In this economy this is such a shame and I feel taken.

Paws, like most agencies, requires personal and veterinary references as well as a landlord reference. I provided all, with full confidence that I would get positive references. Long story short, things did not go well with the dog we adopted. He was advertised as house broken and leash trained. He was neither. That was fine, I fell in love with the dog and was happy to have him trained. But then things got really bad with him being aggressive towards children. I returned the dog because I had to. Paws was happy to take him back. Then when I asked for a refund, they stopped replying to me. Email after email was ignored. Then, instead of asking me for a police report to verify the incident in question, they took it upon themselves to contact the police. Only they called the wrong police department. Instead of asking me why this happened, they sent me an email at 11pm on a Saturday night accusing me of making the incident up! They didn't ask any questions, they didn't contact me. They went off on their own. They should have asked me. I have never been so insulted in my life. Why didn't they just call me? I can only assume since I was not properly vetted that the dog wasn't either. Now my kids are heartbroken and these people think I did that to my kids on purpose. BOO!

This company sent me a fraudulent invoice on my PayPal account. I have no clue how they got my email address. I do not even like dogs, so I would never initiate a donation to anything like this. The invoice is for $46. I spoke with PayPal and they are going to remove it, and report the company. The invoice was dated 11/26/2017. I want to be removed from their email list. I want an apology for trying to "steal" money from me in the guise of a donation. And it would be great if their license were revoked for this illegal invoice. I uploaded a screen shot of the invoice.

My husband and I grew up with dogs. And I used to work for a vet. We now live in a single home with a fenced in yard. We both have high paying careers. And I work from home 3 ½ days. I even donated $1000 to the shelter where my husband adopted our last dog. But our adoption application was denied because you were not able to obtain verifiable vet check. You claimed that our vet check did not meet your minimum standard for vet care. The first vet kept manual records and could not find our dog’s record. The second vet saw our dog when we moved and when our dog became sick and eventually died of cancer. I asked the coordinator to call the 2nd vet back and they will explain that it was recommended not to vaccinate the dog because he was to old and sick. He received just the rabies vaccine because it was the law. But the coordinator never did that and never showed us compassion. We were denied even before anyone spoke one word to us to find out who we are as dog lovers. We were deemed bad pepople for something beyond our control because of a vet’s clerical error in misplacing our records. I have never felt so insulted. We wanted to adopt a dog so that our children can grow to love and care for dogs like my husband and I did. Thank goodness there are organizations out there more understand than PNE. We adopted a perfect dog (smart, handsome, happy and healthy) and just spent over $200 at the vet to continue his puppy shots, rabies, deworming program, flea and tick preventative and heartworm preventative. He is going back in 2 weeks for “lifestyle” vaccines such as Lyme. He is eating Orijen puppy food, which people have told me that is better food than most people eat. I even took off every Wednesday for the rest of the summer so that I can be home with him on top of my working 3.5 days from home.
You can’t sit behind your computer and judge people. I think in your future you should learn more abut your candidates and depend less of some record that a clerk can’t find to determine an animal’s fate because this I know with every fiber in my being, there could be no better care taker of a new family member dog or child than my husband and I.

I e-mailed Paws New England in regards to the adoption fees of some of the dogs we were interested in adopting. I specified that one of the dogs we liked had a fee that would fit more in our budget. The woman who e-mailed me back was condescending in regards to our financial status because I mentioned a budget. Her questioning my financial status at this stage was off-putting and my opinion rude. I had NEVER spoken to her before! Their adoption fees are exorbitant; "Fees" are what they call donations.
A donation is:
1. An act or instance of presenting something as a gift, grant, or contribution.
2. A gift, as to a fund; contribution
The $450 "donation" is for a mongrel. Granted, the money goes toward a good cause; the caring and rescue of the dog. I completely understand this. However, this fee..excuse me...donation... is inflexible.
She did give what I would call a half-apology when I called her on this. She stated that the fee/donation was required to keep the organization running. Which again, I understand...to a point.
Finally in her last e-mail to me she stated that we had been engaging in "banter" regarding my budget (I spoke of it only once initially), she accused me of picking one dog over another because of the cheapness. I NEVER STATED OR IMPLIED ANY SUCH THING! We asked about several dogs (4). We asked about meeting the dog. They all had different fees. And because of her misinterpretation of what I had stated to her, she told me that I wouldn't get a dog from them. Which after dealing with this woman, I am glad about. What would be next? My bank statements? DNA?
So I learned a few things. People can twist what you say any way they want. Especially if they don't like what you are inquiring about. Paws New England needs to revisit who is doing any communications with potential "forever homes". Maybe if they scaled down on some expenses they could offer dogs that aren't so expensive initially. Just because someone doesn't want to spend a small fortune on a mongrel doesn’t' mean they are incapable of having/giving a loving home to a dog.