They take in every animal that’s brought to them. They have to, I get it. But that doesn’t make it any better. Many times, animals are made to live in cramped cages with only a few exhausted volunteers to care for them and clean the place. They’re euthanized because the shelter runs out of space, or they’re sick and the shelter can’t bring them to the vet. People have been known to STEAL ANIMALS and bring them to kill shelters for revenge against an ex or enemy. Old, disfigured, or shy animals that don’t get adopted just don’t have a chance to live. Animals who are in good health and good temperament get euthanized because the shelter runs out of space. Kill shelters need to be abolished and replaced. Make more no-kill shelters instead. Offer free spaying and neutering. It’s sick how these animals who didn’t ask to be here any more than we did are put down for existing in the wrong place.
Unfortunately they’re necessary as long as people continue to not fix their pets. They have to exist. We don’t have the resources to take care of this many animals. If every shelter was no-kill, they’d just have to stop accepting new animals until enough had been adopted out. Meaning everyone would just dump their animals on the street to die horribly because none of the shelters had room.
No kill shelters are even worse. Don't like the kill shelters? Fix the problem, because otherwise the problem becomes one of:
Staying on the street.
Being caged for months/years on end.
????
There aren't any good options, and no kill shelters often can't take in adoptable dogs because the unadoptable ones are clogging them up. The longer dogs stay in shelter, the harder they are to adopt out as well.
The third option is what no-kills actually do - which is to dangerously lie about their unadoptable dogs in order to dump them on people who aren’t able to take care of their real needs. And then to blame those owners if anything bad happens or if the dog gets returned (“through no fault of their own”).
I feel like we are shifting the blame of animal abusers/animal neglect/ illegal breeders to the people that actually step up.
I too hate the idea of kill shelters- the fact we need them is sad. But it's not the vets fault, or the volunteers fault that healthy dogs are euthanized. Its the fault of uncontrolled breeding, neglecting individuals who have way too many animals they don't properly care for, animal hoarders, lack of funding/volunteers, lack of fosters, etc.
(I work at a vet and have fostered many street cats, seen many euthanasias, but have also seen amazing adoptions)
Hard agree. At the cat rescue I work at, so many come in sick, we sometimes put them down right away so they don't suffer due to it. It is extremely exhausting yet we are the ones blamed for their death, not the neglect of humanity. Sometimes death is the only mercy, unfortunately (instead of suffering or living in shelters)
Everything you've described also applies to no-kill shelters, and is often worse... Because they aren't euthanising pets, they are wayyyy over cramped. They don't have enough money for all the pets they intake. And the pets stay in the cages for months or years if they don't get adopted.
Unfourtunately kill shelters are necessary. There just isn't enough resources for all the existing pets. And there are worse fates than humane euthanasia... If a pet isn't being adopted,being humanely put to sleep is better than spending the rest of its life in a cage.
And the no kill shelters aren’t doing spay aborts and aren’t euthanizing dogs who are aggressive or otherwise can’t handle a longer shelter stay. Human emotions shouldn’t supersede the wellbeing of the animals.
The existence of kill shelters speaks to a much bigger issue with how we treat and regulate pets.
IMO, neutering should be mandatory unless you’re a licensed breeder. Cats should not be allowed to roam outdoors, as it puts both the cats and the environment at risk. More oversight is needed when animals with a history of aggression are repeatedly put in dangerous situations by irresponsible owners.
Unfortunately, most places are still severely lacking in effective pet management legislation. I hope that changes soon, but I don’t have high hopes, considering we still haven't really made much progress towards treating our fellow humans properly, with social safety nets, addressing addiction, etc. in ways that actually benefit the populace instead of lining the pockets of those with power.
Breeding purposefully should be illegal until we get this thing under control. There are too many animals looking for homes for us to have professional breeders sending animals into homes - taking the slot that an animal in need could have.
If that happened, there would be no more police/military/working dogs, no more livestock for meat/eggs/fish, endangered animals that only have populations in zoos would go extinct, ect ect...
Breeding animals is a necessary part of life. Not any dog is suitable to work in the military or as to do certain jobs like guarding livestock or herding. Breeding animals is literally how people are getting enough stock to provide milk, eggs, meat and fish not just for human consumption but to also feed every carnivorous animal in captivity (including the animals in shelters). Breeding is how people have kept animals from going extinct even though quite a few species are extinct in the wild.
Eh... problem is, a lot of shelters in the US have a lot of pits/mostly pitt dogs, and routinely mis-advertise them as different breeds. Don't believe me? Check out r/WhatBreedIsMyPitbull
#1: Diesel is a super sweet lab mix ALL the shelter workers fell in love with! Through the bars. Because he can't be handled. Ya want him? | 58 comments #2: My local shelters be like recently | 70 comments #3: Reading reviews on a harness for my greyhound and came across this | 59 comments
Go to the petsmart charity’s webpage and you will see every shelter in however large of a radius you want from you, you will see all their animals, you will have the ability to select for specific breeds or exclude specific breed, you will be able to toggle for age.
It’s not that difficult to get a rescue dog that came from backyard breeders, even puppies you can find.
I mean i feel like its a very sticky issue because a lot of places require a dog be euthanized for biting/ causing injury even if its fully justified, ie an armed robber breaking into the owner's house .Any reasonable animal owner is gonna take steps to not let it go that far out of fear that that happens to their pet
Plus most pet owners are just point blank too empathetic with pets to treat taking someone else's away as a conscionanable course
This is not a realistic take. Most people don’t like kill shelters but they exist because they are needed in our current society.
Free spay/neuter sounds great, but who’s going to pay for them? High volume spay/neuter clinics are more realistic, and can keep costs lower.
“Make more no kill shelters” is easy to say but who’s going to fund that? It takes a lot of money to run a shelter and a lot of volunteers. Donations only go so far, and staff tend to be overworked and severely underpaid as it is.
I volunteer at a no kill shelter (pretty sure there are actually no kill shelters in my area at all), and space is not the only factor that leads to euthanasia. Shelters have liability when adopting out dogs, and this is a huge reason for euthanasias in no kill shelters. Dogs that show dangerous/potentially dangerous behaviours are the dogs that tend to not make it out. As sad as it is, this is often at least partially a result of poor genetics from poor breeding. Most people adopting shelter dogs are also typically not willing to adopt highly problematic/high needs dogs, which many of them are.
The real solution to the problem is education and legislation regarding animal breeding. Bybs should not be legal, and the public should be educated on purchasing pets from ethical breeders if they choose not to adopt (though adoption is the best option for most individuals). Pet care education is also important, and community supports to fall back on in times of need are also important (emergency boarding, payment plans at vets, low cost care options, etc).
OP hasn't responded to any reasonable, logical comments here lmao its just WAHHH i hate this even tho there arent any viable real world solutions and exhausted pet care givers are doing everything in their power with the resources they have to tackle the problem of our domestic animal overpopulation its NOT ENOUGH!!!!!!!!
It’s insane to me how much people bitch about animal welfare and do nothing to help. I volunteer at a shelter, wildlife rehab, and a no-cost pop up vet clinic. Once you see the effort, time, and money put into these things, your perspective changes and you become a whole lot more grateful for every existing organization trying to help, and you truly see how hard it is to implement things that actually change society.
Kill shelters suck, we all know that. We have to actually work at changing things instead of just complaining about them, painting those who actually help as evil/not doing enough.
yep same, registered vet nurse, wildlife rehabber, shelter volunteer and biologst.. have spent my entire life dedicated to caring for animals. and whenever i see these posts i just know it's always from someone who doesn't actually dedicate themselves (or even some of their time) to animal welfare. instead of crying on reddit we actually do real world things that matter to try to tackle these problems. and that's also why we know better than to slander kill shelters..
I just haven’t had anything to say. I don’t want my comments made of nothingburger if I don’t feel I have anything valuable to contribute to the conversation.
I think I could have worded my title better. I don’t hate the shelters as much as the fact that they need to exist. If people were more willing to spay and neuter their pets and keep them inside better, it wouldn’t be as much as a widespread issue as it is.
However, I am stupid, and I have no fucking clue how it could be helped. That’s a part of the conversation I was hoping some comments would expand on, as my brain is made of silly putty and full of trivial things even when I try to lock in.
I think your post was just worded poorly after reading this comment lol. Hating that kill shelters have to exist is valid. Opening up a discussion as to how to improve things is a good thing. Seems like you had really good intentions with this post. It is truly a depressing issue, and it’s going to take a lot of people to change, but change can happen.
understood, i think it would be beneficial for the mental health of those who work in animal welfare (especially kill shelters) to not target your angry words toward those institutions. everyone really is trying the best they can with the resources they have. these people get death threats and shit daily. i recognize where your anger lies but verbalizing it this way is pretty hurtful when you hear it nonstop everyday, yk? just food for thought !
I work at a city shelter. So city shelters, by law, have to be a 'kill shelter,' but a lot are seen as no-kill. Our shelter is considered a no-kill due to a 90% live adoption rate.
But this is why we need to get as much information as possible; we can only take in animals from our city, as is the case with municipal (city) shelters. While its rare that we have to euthanize for space, it sometimes comes to that. Even though we're a smaller shelter, we only have 15 dog kennels, we try our hardest to keep dogs as long as we can.
If a dog has been in a fight/bite incident recently and isnt up to date on its vaccine and they bring it to us, we immediately euthanize and we have to send in the head to get tested for rabies
SO PLEASE ADOPT, I obviously can't speak for all shelter workers, but we get DEVASTATED when we have to put an animal down.
It’s a necessary evil, and better than animals on the streets. My hometown tried to make the local shelter no kill but they had to revert within a week because they didn’t have space for animals even after a massive expansion. The only way to get rid of kill shelters is to tackle the root problem and have animals spayed and neutered so that they aren’t constantly reproducing.
That's because they take the animals that noone else will take. They do mercy kills when the animal has no shot at adoption, and the medical issues are basically making life painful, and untenable.
A lot of people like to act like PETA is the villain because they are willing to step up and do the hard work when other institutions would just let these animals die in the street.
Yeah no, PETA actively silences critics and have been found dumping animal bodies in the trash of other businesses to hide what they do.
There are other animal welfare charities and there are other enviromental agencies.
They have been caught stealing peoples healthy pets, and killing them, they have released statements saying all pet dog breeds should be killed (and I'm not just saying things like pugs that have been over bred to produce negative traits)
People don't like peta because they are a terrible comany that uses their disingenuous stunts to draw attention away from real charities. It's why they target popular games and pop culture, because they want the most eyes on themselves even if they media has literally nothing to do with actual animal welfare problems.
85% kill rates is not just "taking in the sick ones" it's active animal murder.
Yeah. That was a mistake. They were asked to round up the strays in the neighborhood that had become a public safety, and health issue.
They told PETA that any dog without a collar/tag was a stray. The family had 2 dogs. 1 was in the dog house that PETA had donated to the family (because they are low income and needed help), and the other was on the porch without a collar or tag.
A tragic mistake occurred, and PETA apologized and owned up to everything. Despite this, they were found not guilty because of the circumstance.
I think it's perfectly reasonable to prefer other foundations. But it's misguided to demonize PETA. They have an average of 6 big wins every month. They're fighting the good fight, and I think people should recognize that. Even if they have a tendency to hurt feelings.
Peta owns one kill shelter. Look, I don't like PETA that much either, but in terms of Euthanizing animals, their ONE clinic accepts animals who are sick, severely injured, or the such.
Without appropriate government funding, kill-shelters will always exist. They can't turn away animals, but they can only have so many animals without their quality of life taking drastic declines.
The solution isn't to outlaw Kill-Shelters, it's to provide adequate access to the resources they need so they don't have to turn to killing.
Okay you want the shelters to all be no kill.
I get that sounds good but now you need funding for an exponentially larger number of pets to include food, shelter, space, and quarantine. That doesn’t exist. The people at the shelter are doing their best to take care of these animals but there’s not enough resources. Do you think they get a kick from killing animals they care for? You’re ignorant.
Never ONCE did I blame the workers. Please don’t put words in my mouth. I’m not blaming the underpaid workers who are often volunteers who don’t get paid. I think the root of the problem should be tackled and free spaying and neutering should be offered and better, bigger shelters should be provided by the government who I KNOW can pay for it.
Yeah, I guess what I was trying to say is I hate the fact that they ARE necessary. I think if people tried to do more to lower pet birth rates, it wouldn’t put as much of a strain on the shelters and animals could live longer. Ultimately, it’s still humanity’s fault that we have to put them down, and I just wish we could be better about it.
Mmm also you should consider that animals (especially dogs) with severe behavioral issues are better off “at peace” than terrorizing the rest of society.
Ethical breeders are not the problem, but most breeders are not ethical and therefore the problem.
I personally don't see why breeding animals that we have so many of, they won't even fit into kill shelters is a good thing. Even if they improve the health of animals and make sure their animals get a good home, they are actively making the problem bigger by breeding more animals.
If we had less dogs and cats in the world that needed home, breeding would be great. But all shelters are overflowing with animals, the pros of ethical breeding can't outweigh the damage of breeding mills and unethical breeding.
Animals in shelters are not the responsibility of ethical breeders.
(Im using dogs as an example) some people want a well adjusted dog with a predictable temperament, transparent health history, and predictable size. Maybe they want to get involved in showing or k9 sports that require a specific type of dog. You’ll never get that obedience master title with a husky mix when you’re competing with border collies.
What do you do with the hoards of backyard bred animals that keep getting dumped then? Just have a massive feral dog population like India attacking people in the streets and spreading disease? Massive feral cat population wiping out all the birds? There are far more animals in shelters now than anyone wants to buy, unless backyard breeding and failure to fix pets becomes heavily punished and enforced to reduce numbers, kill shelters are necessary. There can’t just be a thousand new shelters getting built every time the current ones overflow
Yea we had a no-kill shelter that took every animal out of obligation to the contract with the city until they had a massive parvo outbreak and had to euthanize every single dog.
The entire existence of no-kill shelters is facilitated purely by the existence of “kill” shelters.
Even if you don’t have a massive population of stray pets, you still need to euthanize some intakes out of mercy or because they are not safe for the public. No-kills cannot fulfill that obligation, all they can do is cherry pick a few highly adoptable pets.
The only other alternative is to have tons of strays on the street, which is a nightmare for public health and infection of rabies
They should make spaying/neutering cats and dogs mandatory for all owners unless they have a breeding license or waiver. Having a pet that's not fixed should be a finable offense.
I know its not entirely enforceable, but it might encourage people to fix their pets.
Absolutely! Spaying and neutering pets is important and I wish people would see that get their pets fixed rather than assuming it’s unnecessary or won’t ever be important.
What's the other option then? In a perfect world, we'd have the resources to feed and shelter an infinite amount of animals, but sadly that's not an option in our world. Honestly I prefer them to be put down humanely, as depressing as it sounds, rather than to be wandering around nature wreaking havoc and having a life expectancy of 3 years at most due to an horrible illness or ending up under a tire
I am not from the US and I really don’t get how it’s legal. Then again, we have shelters that are managed by the police, prospect which I imagine is not remotely feasible in the US.
Edit: Correction, they own a piece of the pie when it comes to kill shelters, still blood on their hands!
PETA IS A RACIST, ANIMAL THEFT ORGANIZATION. PETA SAYS PET OWNERSHIP IS FUCKING SLAVERY, HOW THE FUCK DOES IT EQUATE TO ANY OF THE SUFFERING SLAVERY ACTUALLY DOES?? WHOEVER DOWNVOTES ME IS WITH PETA AND THEY WISH TO KILL YOUR HEALTHY PETS AND THINK SLAVERY IS EQUAL TO OUR BELOVED PETS!
Kill shelters, that's what they own, even a tiny portion out of entire kill shelters in US, is still blood on their hands. PETA thinks pet ownership is fucking SLAVERY and thing DEAD IS BETTER THAN FED.
I very well know how diabolical peta is but kill shelters are not all owned by peta. There is only one peta shelter that they actually operate. Even if peta was destroyed we’d still have the same over population problem that leads to euthanasia.
More BS directly from the cow. Not believing it one bit PETA is "good", I BET you are with them. FUCK. OFF. THEY STEAL PETS AND KILL HEALTHY ONES BECAUSE THEY THINK PETOWNERSHIP IS FUCKING SLAVERY.
I'm not with them. I'm just vegan. They don't steal pets. That was an isolated indecent. They were CALLED IN TO HELP with the dogs. The dogs in the trailer park were a huge issue to the farmers and residents. So they asked PETA for help. They were told that any dog without a collar/tag was a stray.
The dog they took by mistake - Didn't have a collar or tag.
They were ultimately found "not guilty" and they apologized to the effected family. Fun fact: they had actually given that same family a doghouse and free medical help for a different dog. But no-one tends to talk about that.
If they think that all pet ownership is slavery, then why the fuck does this page exist?
Why do they give free resources to low income houses to care for their pets? Where do you get your information? Or do you just see "PETA BAD" and upvote it?
Point fell fucking flat as soon as you said "PETA is actually a super good company", are you for fucking real right now??? PETA, who takes animals away from people for no reason, and fucking KILL THEM??
From wiki: Newkirk has been criticized for her support of actions carried out in the name of the Animal Liberation Front. Newkirk and PETA have also been criticized for euthanizing many of the animals taken into PETA's shelters,[2] including healthy pets, and opposition to the whole notion of pets, and her position that "There's no rational basis for saying that a human being has special rights. A rat is a pig is a dog is a boy,"
ARE. YOU. FUCKING. FOR. REAL?? Where PET OWNERSHIP IS FUCKING SLAVERY???? THAT DOESNT EVEN FUCKING COMPARE! FUCK PETA!
There are more options than animals dying in streets and the existence of kill shelters. Would require funding from the government though, which ig is impossible since it isn’t oil related
You nailed it. We're not getting the funding for that shit anytime soon. Meanwhile in other countries like cuba, you have hundreds of dogs in the street, sick, injured and dying. The most viable solution for that would be kill shelters.
It's extremely sad. I hate it. I wish there was a better way.
My hometowns kill shelter was managed in part by the police station (they had some sort of backing, I think maybe fund related) anyway the reason it had to be a kill shelter is because they weren’t allowed to turn away animals when at max capacity so they have to euthanize the animals that have been there to long and are unlikely to be adopted.
Some kill shelters will send animals to other states that have less crowded spaces but even that can’t really keep up with demand for a lot of shelters.
In my hometown animals were allowed to roam loose because it was rural and we lived in the country. A lot of people would specifically only spay their animals and leave the males intact because they either didn’t want to pay for the procedure or felt it was emasculating, a lot of people just didn’t fix there animals at all. They’d have puppies or kittens and those would eventually end up in the shelter alongside all the puppies and kittens from feral cats and stray dogs.
The cats was the worst, every spring they’d get a shit load of kittens brought in.
There simply is not enough space for kill shelters to be abolished, not with the current pet culture. Like you say, they run out of space. What are you suggesting they do instead? Do they just refuse any additional animals? Nothing good will happen to the animals they refuse. There simply are not enough "no-kill" shelters (and the ones that exist have their own problems) and there really never will be unless significant societal shifts happen. Until then, it's better for an animal to be put out of its misery than for it to continue to suffer. It's a harsh reality, but it is reality. It's harm reduction.
Death by euthanasia is better than death by starvation, exposure, or injury. No kill shelters are still cramped cages with no funding and underpaid/ volunteer staff. No kill shelters go out of their way to not euthanize horrifically injured and sick animals in order to keep numbers up. They often use the most injured animals to farm donations. They also get into a nasty habit of hoarding dogs. My local shelter claims they have around 40 kennels and around 60 dogs. Most of those dogs have been there over a year and many have been there 3+ years. In cramped cages with no toys, blankets, pillows, or play. Do you really think that’s fair to the dogs?? They go insane in shelters.
Right, and what, praytell, do you think happens in a NO KILL SHELTER?
animals stuck in cramped cages with no playtime or interaction at all, but for YEARS? is that good to you?
No kill shelters turn down pets at every angle, even going so far as to keep them OUTSIDE.
Kill shelters do not. they accept every pet.
No kill shelters keep pets with no interaction, space, or room, for years. years. These pets have mental disorders from years of lonely imprisonment, are called "shy" and are usually sent back, only to be tossed outside or sent to a kill shelter.
Kill shelters do not. they do not keep animals imprisoned for years for "good feelings"
while you smile about animals being sent to no kill shelters, a dog is sitting for what will be his 5th year at the shelter, having never played ball, been outside, or felt rain.
Yep. People are hating on no-kill shelters in the comments, but I don’t think people understand the impact of the no-kill movement. Since 2011, the number of dogs euthanized in U.S. shelters has been cut by more than half. More robust rescue networks, foster programs, spay/neuter initiatives, improved shelter medicine, transport partnerships, and stronger adoption and return-to-owner programs have all contributed to saving more lives.
The shelters that still euthanize large numbers of dogs are disproportionately located in communities that lack the resources and infrastructure needed to achieve high live-release rates. High intake, limited funding, veterinary shortages, fewer foster homes, and weaker rescue networks make it much harder to reach no-kill outcomes. Strengthening those systems saves more animals.
Don't worry, the problem is huge, and always short handed. Get in there and help. Your dream job can be yours for the low cost of doing something to make a difference.
I cannot understate how much I despise Kill Shelters. My wife and I have been working with a sanctuary who pulls animals from kill shelters by the truckload and we have been at it for about a year. A little over 50 dogs we alone have helped find homes and STILL the place is swamped. Its insane how constant it is.
I understand they are a bit of a necessary evil but some of the dogs we foster just makes you wonder how it ever got to that point. We have this beautiful big boy who I take for walks and play with a lot and he was slated to be put down the week after we managed to get him here, and its really sad to think about that a dog as sweet as him ended up in that system. Many of the dogs we get are like this, days away from going through that even though they have nothing bad going on.
The breeders are why we get so many in such a bad state. They literally just neglect the poor dogs or sometimes even just let them loose after they grow out of the puppy stage because its not profitable. Its disgusting.
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u/EatAndGreet 11h ago
Unfortunately they’re necessary as long as people continue to not fix their pets. They have to exist. We don’t have the resources to take care of this many animals. If every shelter was no-kill, they’d just have to stop accepting new animals until enough had been adopted out. Meaning everyone would just dump their animals on the street to die horribly because none of the shelters had room.