I’ve spoken to a lot of people and very often, some simply surrender their animals to shelters without finding out what type of shelter it is with regard to euthanasia policies.
Some take the word “no-kill” literally and think there is really no killing at all in these shelters.
Our suggestion is to please ask for details on what the shelter does, what it can offer, before you surrender your animals there. We don’t want you to regret your decision later and get a shock of your life when something bad happens to your surrendered animal. Always ask for information from the person in charge, not hearsay and certainly not “someone who happens to be there”.
This link provides a fairly good definition of no-kill shelters: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No-kill_shelter
We are copying the relevant parts out here for you:
A no-kill shelter is an animal shelter that does not euthanize healthy or treatable animals based on time limits or capacity, reserving euthanasia for terminally ill animals, animals suffering poor quality of life, or those considered dangerous to public safety. A no-kill shelter uses many strategies to promote shelter animals; to expanding its resources using volunteers, housing and medical protocols; and to work actively to lower the number of homeless animals entering the shelter system. Up to ten percent of animals could be killed in a no-kill shelter and still be considered a no-kill shelter.
Definition
A no-kill shelter is a shelter that saves healthy, treatable and rehabilitatable animals and reduces their euthanasia rates by screening and selecting the animals they bring into their care, known as a limited admission shelter. As a benchmark, at least 90% of the animals entering the shelter are expected to be saved. The save rate must be based on all animals entering the shelter.
This is important:
Adoptability issue
Some shelters claim they are no kill when they save all “adoptable” animals, but continue to kill many healthy, treatable, or rehabilitatable animals, such as feral cats. No kill advocate Nathan Winograd states that a Los Angeles animal shelter “was claiming to be saving almost all ‘adoptable’ animals even while it was killing half the dogs and 80% of all cats. A shelter does not achieve No Kill by calling animals ‘unadoptable’ before killing them; it achieves No Kill by actually saving their lives.”
There is a short list of countries which have adopted the no-kill policies in their shelters, with India, having the world’s oldest no-kill traditions. Italy has outlawed the euthanasia of healthy companion animals (meaning, pets) while Poland has outlawed the killing of all animals except for the very sick ones or those whose sickness endangers the lives of others or blind litters.
The list goes on. Please read the article in its entirety so that we have more knowledge on this.
A friend told me some time back that she had surrendered a healthy puppy to a certain shelter. She was told by someone she assumed to be a worker how much she must pay per month. Her fault was that she did not enquire at the office. She paid the monthly fee without asking for a receipt, but on the third month when she visited, she was told that her puppy had already been euthanised. She was very upset and angry, and understandably so. Don’t let this happen to you.
We are well aware that our country is quite behind in animal rights and animal protection, so before you surrender your animals to any shelter, please find out what their policies are. Be well informed and make an informed decision. Your animals depend on you.
Non-human animals aren’t as complicated in their thinking as humans. They just want to live. It’s their survival instinct. So please remember this, everyone: Every animal wants to live. Please honour this natural instinct in them.