On almost a weekly, if not daily basis we have the conversation about shelters, high kill, and no-kill. A
lot of people misunderstand what these terms really mean, and how each type of shelter effects animal rescue. The most important thing to know, right off, is a little back ground on the terms.
High-Kill shelter - A shelter that gives all dogs (regardless of health, breed or ability) a set amount of time to get adopted and once that time is up, the dog faces euthanasia (most commonly by injection or gas).
Many people consider high-kill shelters to be terrible facilities which need to be shut down. The problem is, what happens to the dogs currently in the shelter or those who would, in the future, have gone to that shelter? Those dogs will either remain in bad situations instead of being removed, or be forwarded to another shelter, which then would become overburdened with dogs and be much more likely to increase the amount of dogs being put down. Dogs that might normally be considered borderline unadoptable will be pushed over the lines. Basically, another high kill shelter is created, and the problem is made worse.
The best way to reduce the number of dogs being euthanized is to promote the dogs. Volunteer to promote the dogs through photos, videos, or adoption events. Raise funds for the shelter so they can afford to care for more animals, or to provide better care to the animals present. Suggest the shelter to fosters/rescues, and let the shelter know about their available resources (the various fosters, rescues, etc). Also, promote Spay/Neuter to reduce the number of animals coming in [see article bellow].
No-kill shelter – “A No-kill shelter is an animal shelter that does not put an adoptable animal to sleep. Euthanasia often occurs when an animal is unadoptable, usually because of untreatable medical or behavioral issues.” (Source = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_shelter#No-kill).
It is important to also know how “adoptable” and “unadoptable” are defined:
“California Law, SB 1785 Statutes of 1998,
Adoptable animals include only those animals eight weeks of age or older that, at or subsequent to the time the animal is impounded or otherwise taken into possession, have manifested no sign of a behavioral or temperamental defect that could pose a health or safety risk or otherwise make the animal unsuitable for placement as a pet, and have manifested no sign of disease, injury, or congenital or hereditary condition that adversely affects the health of the animal or that is likely to adversely affect the animal's health in the future.
Adoptable dogs may be old, deaf, blind, disfigured or disabled
A treatable animal shall include any animal that is not adoptable but that could become adoptable with reasonable efforts."
Sick, traumatized, infant or unsocialized dogs need appropriate medical treatment, behavior modification and/or foster care to turn them into healthy animals ready for placement.
"Unadoptable" or "non-rehabilitatable" means animals that are neither adoptable or treatable. By way of exclusion, SB1785 defines "unadoptable":
1) Animals eight weeks of age or younger at or subsequent to the time the animal is impounded; 2) Animals that have manifested signs of a behavioral or temperamental defect; 3) Those that could pose a health or safety risk or otherwise make the animal unsuitable for placement as a pet and 4) Animals that have manifested signs of disease, injury, or congenital or hereditary condition that adversely affects the health of the animal or that is likely to adversely affect the animal's health in the future.”
(Source = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No-kill_shelter#Further_reading)
What this means is that even “no-kill” shelters put down dogs which the average individual might think would have a good chance. Young puppies who are bellow adoptable age or dogs with things like heartworms (which can be treats as long as the worms have not caused permanent, critical damage) can be put down. What “no-kill” really means is that as long as the animal is friendly, doesn’t become sick, or isn’t too young they generally don’t “run out of time” however shelter life can be hard on dogs and lead to conditions which may lead them to be put down or be considered unadoptable.
Reasons to Promote Spay/Neuter - Often unplanned litters end up in shelters or abandoned because their owners can’t find homes for them, do not have time to find homes for them, or simply cannot afford to care for them. Simply spaying or neutering animals that are not intended for breeding can prevent accidental pregnancies. Additional benefits of spay/neuter can be found here (
http://www.spayusa.org/main_directory/02-facts_and_education/benefits_sn.asp).
To really understand why this is so important, let’s say a female dog has a litter of 4 puppies. Each of those four puppies grow up, and either have or father a litter of four puppies. That means that in one generation being born and reproducing, 19 dogs (the first litter and each of their litters) would need homes (please note that many litters can be in upwards of 10 or more pups). That, of course, is assuming that each dog only had one litter, and that each litter is only four pups, which, if a dog is left unspayed/unneutered all their life, is rather unlikely.
A female dog can generally go into heat twice a year, and depending on size, breed etc can have between 1-10 pups. Say the dog had 5 pups each time, got pregnant once a year and lived 8 years, that’d be 40 puppies. Now imagine how many dogs they could produce? Obviously this isn’t the typical example but when you have hundreds of unspayed/unneutered dogs out there, it is easy to see why shelters are having a hard time finding homes for all the animals.
Additional Facts: Another fact to know is that on average it takes about $20k a month to run a shelter.
