Centre County PAWS

We are adopting a dog from here, and I highly recommend this place for your next fur baby.

I recently adopted a cat from PAWS and the experience couldn't have been better.

When I submitted my application, the process was started that day. By the end of the week, I was ready to meet some potential companions.

Upon entering PAWS and signing in, you are given a small tour of the cat rooms. After the tour you're free to visit with any of the cats on the floor and enter any of the rooms. I was not only impressed with the cleanliness of the facility but the quality of life the cats have. The cats are free to roam within their respective rooms, which are spacious and filled with toys, perches, catios, and cat trees. Senior cats are well taken care of. I especially appreciated that I could visit with cats at my pace. I never felt rushed.

My adoption counselor was incredibly flexible with scheduling and answered any questions I had along the way.

PAWS is clearly a well-run, clean, caring organization. I sincerely appreciate their time and kindness, and I will be recommending PAWS to my friends and family. You should not hesitate to adopt or financially support PAWS. They've done such a good job.

Helped my client find a doggie for her companion! Treated her with kindness and wasn't so worried about her age. God bless them!

Very wonderful, caring staff. It’s clear the animals have a good relationship with their volunteers, and the animals all look very well taken care of. I would absolutely adopt an animal here again and I would recommend this location if you had to surrender a pet.

I just adopted a kitty and my adoption counselor, Norman, helped me in so many ways and answered my million questions. The animals seem like they are in their happiest living situation with enrichment, and comfort. (Apart from being in a new loving owner’s home)

Great people and adoption experience. Found our newest family member and things have been so lovely. Adopt don't shop!

We recently adopted a kitten from here and it was a great experience! Everything runs smoothly. They provide so much to make the adoption successful. Everyone was friendly and helpful. We highly recommend and will return!

* PAWS followed up with me & I am super grateful my experience has been heard c:
I updated my review as they are now aware of my experience!

I adopted my kitty from PAWS a bit over a month ago. I love my cat. PAWS provides you with a voucher for a bag of food, a vet visit, a microchip, and more as applicable.

I filled out an online application, and was paired with the most amazing adoption counselor (Desirae). She was super understanding, personable, likable, and most importantly genuine & helpful. The whole interview/reference process only took a few days, and I was approved to come meet the cats.

We were able to meet a pair of kittens from the same litter at a time. We fell in love with the third kitten we met with, and he seemed to be comfortable around us as well. I appreciated that we got to meet and interact with the kitten before bringing him home, as he’s going to be a part of my family forever.

Almost everyone that I had interacted with at PAWS has been wonderful. Again, I love my cat and I am so thankful that I got to meet him and bring him home. I am so thankful for the amazing fosters who take such wonderful care of kittens. The day we picked him up, we had a different adoption counselor (Stefanie) who was wonderful as well. Overall, I love PAWS & have been recommending the place to my friends who are thinking of adopting. I still browse the adoptable kittens just because they’re so cute

About a month and a half ago I adopted a kitten from paws who had unfortunately been in an accident where she lost her front leg and no vision in one eye. Upon adopting her we were told she was completely fine and had no underlying issues. However that was far from the truth. Never once when we adopted her were we told she had broken ribs or that she had roundworms. Fast forward to about a week ago she fell extremely ill throwing up blood and roundworms. After looking at her records we noticed she had roundworms at PAWS and after looking at her vaccination records it clearly showed paws didn’t treat her roundsworms within the correct time frame they should have been treated. Therefore resulting in us having to rush her to the vet in hopes we caught it in time. At the vet they clearly stated these had been in her for months due to the extensiveness of the amount and her condition she was in. After reaching out to PAWS to see if they could make it right since this issue originated when she was in their care and speaking with their medical manager Colin who said verbatim “we cannot predict the future” and basically said they weren’t going to make it right. In addition he explained they don’t do fecal tests to make sure the worms are gone and that they train their people to share all the medical history which wasn’t done. In their mission online they hold themselves to values of open communication and responsible practices which is most certainly not what I experienced. I will never be adopting from here again which is a shame and I advise those who are thinking about adopting from here to proceed with caution.

We recently adopted our 2nd dog with medical needs from PAWS. I cannot say enough great things about how helpful the PAWS team is in supporting special-needs animals before and after adoption, about offering advice and assistance helping pets settle into new homes, and just being so friendly and accessible any time we walk in!

Staff was very helpful and kind. We had a stay have 7 kittens at our home. The vet recommended PAWS as the best place to find good homes for them. They are nothing but awesome in my book! They are thorough and very kind.

I don’t think I could even say enough nice things about this place. The staff keeps in direct contact and definitely work with families looking for a lifelong friend and family member. Animals are in open rooms and not overcrowded. They take care of special needs animals and definitely vet anyone trying to adopt (definitely love this). Thank you for finding Lovey and bringing this poor girl to a place to be given a chance to be loved. She’s definitely a part of our family now
We will be back to adopt another soon
Thank you Crystal!

I give Centre County PAWS my highest recommendation. As an adopter of two cats and a longtime volunteer, I see the good that this organization does for our community on a daily basis. I am proud of the work PAWS does, and encourage others to support its it’s mission.

This place is wonderful! Very caring, efficient volunteers/employees. This is a great place to go for Well cared for pets to adopt!

Local group of dedicated people associated with a veterinarian that do a good job of placing pets in furever homes.

This is the second terrible experience I had here. Several years ago we tried to adopt a dog and we’re denied because even though we have a large house and fenced yard with plenty of room, we had “too much going on” because we had 5 kids living at home, 3 who were teens at the time. We ended up purchasing a dog somewhere else instead of rescuing because of this and she is now the most spoiled and loved dog ever!
More recently had to surrender a different dog after talking about it for several months due to circumstances out of our family’s control. When we took her for intake at Paws, we were told they couldn’t handle her because she seemed too anxious (she was walking around the room sniffing and watching other dogs and cars go by the window, then barking at them, it’s a new building with new scents and experiences, of course she’s going to be anxious) and they already had 2 other high anxiety dogs there. It was devastating to make the decision to surrender a loved dog only to be told they couldn’t take her. Yet the next day I see them selling puppies all over Facebook. $350 a puppy. Wow. Throw a ton of puppies into the community, but don’t take in a very sweet young dog who would make a family very happy. It’s disgusting behavior.
However Pets come first took the pup in a heartbeat for us and were extremely kind and understanding.

My daughters adopted a beautiful cat that has been rescued from Meyers Dairy at 4 months old. They totally knew that the cat was very sick with a severe heart murmur and with this bad diagnose our private vet said that our beloved pet would probably live for a few more months. At this adoption location they gave us this cat completely knowing of his condition but decided to push us to adopt him vehemently. Any veterinarian with a simple stethoscope can detect a murmur in a cat. My daughters have suffered their mothers loss to cancer a few years back and also another cat for the same illness. We don't know what will happen now but if our pet dies because of this illness it will inflict another painful episode in their short life. They should never put sick animals for adoption waiting for people without economic means like us to take care of them with the burden that now we have to carry on.
Update as of 3/20/23: Milk is refusing to eat and even knowing about the pet that they gave in adoption has a severe illness and is knowingly sick, we never got a simple call from Center County Paws. They deny any wrongdoing which is false.
Update as of 3/26/23. Unfortunately Milk died last night. We all gave him the best love we could give. Never leaving him alone. He'll be in our hearts forever.

I went to the volunteer training. While handling a dog, I politely asked the instructor if I could choose not to wrap the dog leash around my wrist because it could cause wrist and hand injuries such as fractures and dislocations or ruptured tendons if the dog suddenly pulls hard. This is a safety precaution I've learned over the years from working with a few professional dog trainers. The instructor, instead of addressing my safety concerns, got defensive and talked down at me in front of everyone, screamed and threatened that if I can't handle the dog then I shouldn't be volunteering. She then continued to talk down to me and make up her mind that I can't handle the dog I was walking when the dog was simply a little excited to be outside. To be fair, the leash was incorrect length (too long) and the dog ended up pulling all the volunteers walking him, including the instructor. Later on, I was able to peacefully handle another dog that was considered the same level as the previous dog.

I didn't realize bringing up safety concerns could cause such an extreme and abnormal defensiveness from the instructor. Someone who is responsible training other volunteers should know how to handle a leash in ways that minimize the risks of wrist injuries. Bullying new volunteers and making them disregard their own safety just to incorrectly use the leash her way is just neglectful and irresponsible.

I have done my share of rescue and volunteering overseas and for the military. I've dealt with dogs that were traumatized and abused in ways you don't want to imagine. I'm here to volunteer with good intention. However I find it alarming that it took so little to cause the volunteer training manager to lash out and antagonize a prospective volunteer who brought up a safety concern in good faith. I also noticed the aggressive attitude towards POC and young volunteers from the manager. Not a great environment overall.