In November, we adopted a little ragdoll kitten from the Humane Society of Charlotte. She was healthy for the first 2 or 3 months until she started to show signs of serious illness. When we took her to the vet, we discovered a parasite. Long story short, she died in May from internal bleeding caused from the parasite.
The moral of the story is that you take this chance when you adopt an animal from any shelter. In no way is this the Humane Society's fault (they couldn't have known) and they did an awesome job of making sure we knew how to take care of a kitten properly. For the most part their facilities are clean and the animals are healthy. There are a lot of cats and dogs to choose from. The volunteers/staff are really kind and they take the time to let people view the animals. The application process is pretty simple and the prices are lower than other animal organizations. Despite the shady neighborhood surrounding it, this definitely seems to be one of the better animal shelters in the Charlotte area.