no kill shelters

lakotasong

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#23
If a dog is too aggresive to adopt out we work with it until it is ready to be adopted.
I find it extremely hard to believe that the organization has never had to euthanize due to either animal or human aggression, unless it has a closed door intake policy.

If the dog does not do well in the home then the adopters can bring it back to the shelter at no cost and no questions asked.
No questions asked? So how do you know what went wrong and why the dog was returned?
 
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Purdue#1

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#24
Our shelter puts animals down. our medical biology class uses the cats to pratice their skills at giving shots. the time they wait i don't know, but i'm calling monday to see. There was a rott/pit mix that stayed around here i knew would be put down because everyone around here has this fear of pits. i personally don't care about pits. its mostly the owners to blame, but i didn't like this one around here. it made me nervous. This dog was huge and i have this little pup that thinks he's macho and barks about everything. The dog comes over looking not too friendly, and i, being to crazed lunatic throw a shoe at him and run him off. Finally, after about a month of the neighbor, who we thought owned the dog, who lives across the road, calling them they pick up that dog and a very old lab. if we knew the dog was a stray we would not have tolerated it staying here. Of course, there have been many dogs that crossed that line. If our dog coco was here, she would have run that dog far away, but we had to put her down this year because of cancer. she ran off a very large mastiff one time even with her pretty much useless leg. She was the fastest dog i've ever seen. i miss her. i miss my cat too. she mourned herself to death. we never found her.:(
 

elegy

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#25
I find it extremely hard to believe that the organization has never had to euthanize due to either animal or human aggression, unless it has a closed door intake policy.
me too. i also don't agree with adopting out dogs who are or who have been human aggressive. not in this day and age. not with the number of non-aggressive dogs being killed for no reason other than there's nowhere for them to go.

some no-kill shelters are wonderful and do great things for dogs. some are just warehouses, which i do not agree with at all. i think most fall somewhere in the middle. i would support/adopt from one, but i also support and adopt from kill shelters that are responsibly and reasonably run.
 

Zoom

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#27
I have mixed feelings about no kill shelters all together. I'm not for putting a dog down in 3 days if it's not adopted. But for those dogs who languish in these cells for too long.....well, that's worse than death IMO. It would be a kindness to put them down if they're not adopted in a reasonable time frame.

Wow, a bunch of us posted at about the same time. So, I just said sort of the same thing that was said.
I fully agree. At some point dogs and cats will start to become "institutionalized" and it's almost impossible to adopt them out. When I was looking for a dog I came across this BC that had been at a shelter for 4 years. She sounded like a very sweet girl and may have been a good fit, but after 4 years...it would have been like taking her from an actual home.
 

ToscasMom

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#28
Here's an animal sanctuary that not only takes dogs and cats, but horses, ducks and just about any animal that is on its way to "no good". These people operate on a farm and are 100% privately funded. They have a renowned animal communicator and attending one of their communication courses is an inexplicable nature experience. The founder lives on the premises. Their facility looks more like a hotel than a shelter in some spots. Little couches, furniture, etc for the animals. They have this huge deck to their main building where, on any given good weather day, cats lounge on lounge chairs and other donated outdoor furniture. Several times a year they have dinner theater shows to raise money.

They are often "full" as you mention, but they also have a network of smaller groups that they work with, give vouchers to for fostering etc. Earlier this year, I found myself caring for two cats belonging to an elderly man who had to go to a nursing home. His sister is a witch and just as soon would have had those animals cornered and euthanized on the spot. I contacted them and they helped to find a permanent home for them within two weeks.

http://www.springfarmcares.org/
 

scob89

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#29
I find it extremely hard to believe that the organization has never had to euthanize due to either animal or human aggression, unless it has a closed door intake policy.


No questions asked? So how do you know what went wrong and why the dog was returned?
We do not have a closed door policy and no we have never had to PTS a dog because of aggresstion.

Because 9 times out of 10 the person tells us why without us asking. The other one we wouldn't know.
 
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#30
The "no-kill" shelters around here will either return them to the previous owners or ship them off to kill shelters to take care of them. A true "no-kill" is a pipe-dream.
 

chinchow

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#32
The idea, IMO, of no-kill shelters is great. Most kill shelters do not give a very long time for the animals to be adopted out. But perhaps, no-kill shelters should have fostor homes, more like a lot of breed rescues do.

It seems like a double-edged sword, but there's ways to make it better than what it is. It's just the point of getting there.
 

StillandSilent

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#33
It can run both ways. Our shelter is "no kill" but we do have occasional temperment issues and illnesses that prove to be fatal. We also have a closed door policy. We are very close with animal control, which is right next door and take all of our animals from there. Most of th animals at AC will still be put to sleep. Its not a perfect solution, but its the best we can do. You do have to take special steps to prevent animals from becoming too institutionalized. We have foster homes who do long term foster for some of our dogs who show the strain of being there too long. We are also sending some longtimers to be trained at the prison. Several times a year we have "Bark for the Big Dogs" when dogs who have been there for a certain length of time are showcased and adopted out at a reduced fee. We do the best for them, but some will go "cage crazy" and slip through the cracks.
On the other hand, there is a cats only rescue group un town that operates through foster homes and I wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole. Over 300 cats living in one house, Leukemic positive cats mixing with Leukemic negative ones. It's just terrible.
 

lakotasong

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#34
On the other hand, there is a cats only rescue group un town that operates through foster homes and I wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole. Over 300 cats living in one house, Leukemic positive cats mixing with Leukemic negative ones. It's just terrible.
Ugh, we just recently had a similar operation get shut down in my town. A woman was found to be warehousing over 150+ cats, with support from a larger national cat rescue organization (which hadn't checked up on this woman in quite a while, just sent her supplies and money). Apparently this woman was also practicing spays and neuters IN HER OWN HOME on these cats (and no, she is not a licensed vet). I read in the paper last week that the court case is still going on, but the shelter got permission to start adopting out the cats because the woman agreed to sign them over.

I hope that woman rots in jail.
 

mamasobuco

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#35
This is a little off topic but not much.
The rescue group that I work with is no kill and once an animal is with us, they will not be put down due to unadoptability. All of our dogs, puppies, cats and kittens are fostered. Foster parents care for them until they are adopted or if they're not adopted. The beauty of the rescue center is that anyone adopting a pet from us signs an agreement to bring the animal back to us if it doesn't work out. I've seen this happen twice and both times the dogs found new homes within about an hour of them being dropped off.
My husband and I foster puppies only because we have to put our dogs first. Needless to say we haven't brought any back after adoption day.
One more thing and I'll shut up...The people who already have fallen in love with one of the animals after seeing him or her on the web all have something very special about them. They show up litterally hours before adoptions start and after adoptions start they stand there like they have ants in their pants waiting to finally cuddle the fur baby they couldn't stop thinking about. It's a wonderful thing to experience and I cry every time. Especially if it's one of my fosters they came to take home. :)
 

SeniorPetLover

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#36
Most no-kill shelters are limited access facilities, which means that they only accept animals when they have resources available for their care. Some of the shelters that I am affiliated with are no-kill. They are networked with several other organizations, so animals that stay at the shelter for several weeks without any adoption interest are transported to a different shelter within the network, where their chances for adoption are greatly improved. This system has worked very well. The key to actually helping these animals is to get them placed quickly because being incarcerated for a long period of time in a shelter enviornment is not good for them mentally or physically. Transporting has been a blessing because animals that are not very adoptable in one part of the State may be highly desirable in another. One of the local kill shelters has also joined the transport network and they have reduced the number of animals that they euthanize by about 50%. Animals that are still not adopted after making the rounds usually wind up in a foster home or at a sanctuary like mine. The bad thing about a no-kill is that they have to turn animals away if they do not have room for them, but the good thing is that the animals that do find themselves in one are going to wind up in a good home, the key is to get it done in a timely fashion.

Edited to add that I agree with Summitview...the no-kill terminology is often a misnomer...I don't know of any shelter that will not have an animal put to sleep if they are very sick or very agressive...most screen so they rarely get a mean or sick animal, but the term low-kill is actually more accurate.
 
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