Animal Rescue League of El Paso

I adopted my dog from ARL almost 9 years ago! She was one of the Hotel Pups. By the time they found her she’d missed the socialization period, scared to death of humans! We got her at 16 weeks. She had learned to tolerate people because of the work of the volunteers. My son volunteered there for a little while:) He has ASD and didn’t say much but he really enjoyed helping in the cat house. They staff and volunteers are friendly and they let you know all about the animals personalities. They really do help match you with an animal so you can both be comfortable with each other. And like I said, they work with the animals to socialize them as much as possible. Great place to look if you have specific traits in mind. Also a great place to volunteer.

I absolutely love this animal shelter! The owner is a tough cookie, but she always has the animal’s best interest in mind. This shelter has a pretty thorough adoption process which I find necessary nowadays when so many people can abandon an animal without a second though.
I adopted my Chihuahua mix, Charlie, from this shelter. She’s adorably, challenged (in the intelligence department)…but adorable none-​the-​less and I love her to the moon and back. We adopted her when she was already a couple of months old, but she was still fairly young and at the time was being kept with her two brothers (the Keebler gang) at a foster home, but made daily appearances at the shelter. The Keebler gang was on cute overload and it was hard to chose just one, but eventually it was settled.
The puppies tend to be kept inside in clean cages with plenty of food, water and some toys, but are regularly taken out by guests and workers so they get a lot of puppy exercise. The rest of the dogs are outside in all different sized running kennels with shelter, toys, and access to all the necessities. I don’t know how often they’re cleaned, but every time I’ve been to the Animal Rescue League all of the kennels are relatively poop free. The chihuahua kennels are pretty large because they tend to be the dog of choice in the area (right beside pit bulls) so there are a ton of them.
All of the dogs are walked and get plenty of exercise. Even though these dogs don’t have permanent homes, they all actually seem happy. I love that. I’ve been to so many shelters that have such sad animals because they are so used to people just passing by and not actually acknowledging them. You can tell all of these dogs get some daily TLC.
If you’re looking to adopt (any breed), you should definitely make this your first stop. It’s next to impossible to not fall in love with one of these cuddly dogs.

I honestly think the people at this shelter do the best they can. There is a huge intake of animals with people calling every day asking if they can drop off animals they no longer want, and that’s not the shelter’s purpose. They are a no-​kill shelter, which is great. Adopt a pet from here, save a life – but don’t expect great customer service. The people who work there get along a lot better with animals than they do with other people and need to improve their people skills, but the animals there are super cute and the facilities are kept very clean. The dogs are walked and played with by volunteers so they don’t spend all their time in a cage. I have three animals from this shelter, and they’re great pets.

DO NOT ADOPT AN ANIMAL FROM THIS SHELTER!!! If you wish to donate to them, go ahead, but don’t make the same mistake I did by adopting an animal from them. They make you sign away any legal rights you have to the pet and have a clause that says they can come and take the pet at any time for any reason. When I signed the paperwork, I felt a bit uneasy about it, but I shrugged it off as them just trying to make a point to people that might neglect the animal. I brought the new puppy home and she immediately brought my older dog to life — they played 24hrs a day! My kids fell in love with her and also played with her all the time. My wife and I have 3 kids and both work, so we stay pretty busy. We had the new puppy for 2 months and had her completely house-​trained when ARL decided we didn’t get an appointment fast enough for them for the next «recommended» vaccine (even though we had one scheduled for the following Monday, so they came and took her away. My kids were devistated and my wife was a wreck. I am filing a civil suit to try and get our pet back, but if I had to do it all again, I would just buy one from a pet store… even though I thought I was doing the right thing by giving a homeless dog a loving family. This whole experience was reduculous! Your children don’t get taken away if you’re a little late getting their immunizations at the «recommended» intervals. Apparently, ARL cares more about their timely schedule than a homeless animal being part of a family in a loving home. Where’s the poor pet now??? — back in the shlter in a metal cage with a concrete floor.