No-kill shelter?

Question

Well, I always thought my Humane society [the one I got both my dogs from!] was a no kill shelter. That they would keep any animal for all its life if it wasn't adopted. Now I read this on the site

"# Animals are evaluated for adoptability and must meet our criteria for GOOD HEALTH and GOOD TEMPERAMENT.
# If the animal you surrendered meets our criteria it will be placed up for adoption and we do not have a preset time limit.
# Animals must remain in good health, both physically and emotionally. Animals not meeting our adoption criteria are humanely euthanized (painlessly put to death) by injection."

So is it considered no-kill or not? I think no because they only do it for the best of the animal.. like if they are suffering or if it was placed in a home, they'd see it was unstable and the dog would get a bad life/abused/put to sleep anyways/left on the street.

Well, it technically is a kill shelter, but that means that no-kill shelters keep ill and suffering dogs?

One of the posters: I have the answer now [thanks people!] but think if it was a 'no-kill' shelter, but it was so sick it died there with the people. Anyways I'll choose Best answer in 4 hrs lol

Answer 1

This is a great question.

It sounds like it's a "kill shelter" that does everything it can not to ever euthanize adoptable animals. That's the best of both worlds. Although the idea of a "no-kill" shelter sounds great on paper, the reality is that many unadoptable dogs spend their entire lives in what are basically prison conditions. On top of whatever condition already made it unadoptable, dogs kept in shelter conditions for extended periods of time (as in months/years) go a little stir crazy, depressed, or develop obsessive-compulsive disorders that are just awful to see, and that's assuming that they're healthy. Many no-kill shelters won't euthanize animals unless they are on death's door, so animals with moderately severe health issues or even simple things like bad arthritis are going to live on for years in their little pens or cages with their afflictions.

Please don't get me wrong... I think that people who run no-shelters do so because they love animals and do not intend to cause extended suffering, but I feel that it is a terrible thing to dedicate limited resources to a dog who will be imprisoned for life when there are so many behaviorally adoptable dogs out there who are euthanized unnecessarily. When dogs with great family dog potential are euthanized -- now THAT is a travesty.

One of my dogs would definitely qualify as "behaviorally unadoptable" and if something were to happen to me, I would rather see him euthanized a million times over than to have him live out his days, unapproachable and unloved, in a cage, kept alive by people who think death is the worst thing that can happen to an animal. There ARE fates far worse than death.

One other important consideration is that a shelter that carefully screens its dogs is doing a wonderful service to all of doggie-kind. When people adopt a dog from a shelter that ends up having serious behavioral issues, those people will NOT return to the shelter to get their next dog. They come out of the experience with the mistaken impression that shelter dogs are "reject dogs". When shelters do a good job of adopting out the best candidates, those great dogs are living advertisements for why people should adopt from shelters, and more people will go to the shelter to adopt.

Answer 2

No Kill is a myth. Warehousing a dog for the rest of it's life is cruel. Some animals go shelter crazy. Unfortunately there is no money tree either. A old sick dog that can't be cured costs a lot of money. Shelters have limited resources. If a dog has to have ACL surgery it's about $3K. Would it be better to spend that money and save 20 dogs instead that had a chance at adoption? There's more dogs coming in every day unfortunately. People don't spay or neuter and they think pets are disposable. Sorry, I see it too often. Perhaps you could volunteer at a rescue or shelter.

Answer 3

The no kill shelters have the choice of keeping an animal or not. And if they do, and its ill. They will restore it back to health. I would rather get a dog from a kill shelter becuase I want to saves its life. That what I did, its where i got my newest doberman. I dont know, I think that pet stores should sell animals who need a home from shelters. And keep them there all the time, not just once a day, every month like petmart does. I can almost gaurantee that the stats for unclaimed and put-down animals would drop Dramitcally. Just think about it. We need to stop Contributing to puppy mills. Thats where pet shops get their animals, they dont go to a breeder and buy them for an iinsane price, and sell it for the exact same, No. They go to where they have surplus of dogs, and buy them cheaply, and sell them for more money. Thats why the claim their cheaper than breeders.

Answer 4

I work in the animal rescue/shelter field, and the preferred terminology these days, rather than kill or no kill, is open intake and limited intake. Open intake shelters, like municipal shelters, take in all animals, and then they do evaluate them for adoptability. Limited intake shelters are often smaller, private non-profits and have to turn away many animals because of lack of space, i.e. they keep animals until they are adopted out. It's a sad fact that no matter what, there are many many more unwanted and homeless animals out there than there are spots in shelters (of any kind).

Answer 5

Does it specifically state any where that your shelter is "no-kill?" Shelters don't have a limitless supply of funds. If an animal is too medically or behaviorally unstable to be reasonably cared for and provided a good quality of life, then what option does a shelter have? No-kill shelters are a great concept, but the real focus needs to be on responsible pet ownership that includes spaying and neutering pets.

Answer 6

Sorry, but could the one person who mentioned "fence-fighting", explain that a little more? I know the obvious, but what is the definition, officially. ? Isn't that just being sorta territorial? /// >> N0-Kill shelters mean that mostly there is an indefinite time-frame for each dog that enters, I think. ~~ I have volunteered on & off at our local shelter. ~~ In days past, a lost/found dog policy would give possible owner "x" number of days to claim a missing pet, then maybe a >2-WEEK? < time period for adop[tion before extermination. SO SAD!!! = Nowadays thankfully we have the pet-ear computer chips and computer data *in general* - to help lengthen a shelter animal's life!!

Answer 7

yes it does put down animals

No-kill shelters are great but they tend to have dogs that are ill (dieing) and adopt out dogs that don't go through a temperment test. I adopted one of my dogs from a no kill shelter. It was clean and all but the dog I got would fence fight! kill shelters tent to not allow fence fighting and works with dogs to stop it.

Also on a special I saw on HBO a no kill shelter may not have the time to socialize a dog or keep them happy. Dogs may go crazy in their kennels. Humane society and all those other shelters you see take in volunteers to help keep them social.

Answer 8

Well, I look at it like this. If you take the dog to a shelter and for any reason they put the animal down, then it would be a KILL-SHELTER. No matter which way you look at it. Humanley or not, they killed it.

The only ones I know that are no kill are the ones that are at someones home. They usually have the word "RESCUE" in it and they have members that take the dogs in thier own homes until they find permanent ones.

Answer 9

undertake from the guard that has the puppy you maximum like. it relatively is significant observe that "no-kill" does no longer mean they do no longer euthanize animals. All it skill is they do no longer euthanize animals they deem "adoptable". What ends up in an animal being deemed unadoptable varies broadly by using guard. sometimes, minor well-being concerns, relatively correctable minor behavioral issues, or in basic terms being previous can get an animal categorized "unadoptable" and euthanized at a "no-kill" guard. besides, maximum so-reported as "no-kill" shelters are no longer open-admission. What meaning is they do no longer might desire to take each animal that comes contained in the path of the door. in the event that they're complete up, or they do no longer think of they might relatively detect a definite animal a house, they won't take it. wager the place they finally end up? it particularly is authentic- the "kill" guard! nonetheless others "pass" animals to different shelters whilst they choose for area. wager what shelters? oftentimes the "kill" shelters. Neither guard form is unavoidably extra useful than the different. The "no-kill" designation is deceptive at suitable and often outright cheating.

Answer 10

as long as the dog remains in good health they will not put the animal down but if the animal shows any signs other than being happy then it's off to the upper room