Pet Forum / Miscellaneous / Animal Health / January 2008

Do any shelters actually make use of a gas chamber to kill animals?

Its been my experience that no-kill shelters aren't really no-kill. They
just end up screening animals at the door, and shuffle off a lot of the
difficult cases to the more traditional shelters. The fact of the matter is,
resources are limited. That isn't going to change.

How exactly are you going to deal with a drug dealer's vicious dog that's
been abused since day one to turn him in to a fighting dog? I'm not saying
he can't be rehabilitated, but its going to take a *lot* of resources to do
this. How many other dogs could you save with the same resources?

How are you going to deal with the feral cats and dogs that come in?

Ultimately the decision made by most shelters is to restrict entry to
'adoptable' animals, which really makes the whole 'no-kill' thing more of a
PR move than anything else. (the ones they deem unadoptable end of at the
other shelter, which ends up upping their 'kill rate')

This page also makes it sound like the other shelters are killing puppies
for the fun of it or something, which I kind of object to. I also object to
the scare tactics at the top of the page that says "Most animals in shelters
will be killed". I don't know the international statistics, but I know
around here its no where near "most".

I for one would much rather support a 'low-kill' shelter. (i.e. one that
recognizes that yes we will have to euthanize some animals that come in, but
we're going to keep that number as low as possible).

Dale