Why aren’t all shelters “no kill” shelters?

Pet overpopulation is a tragedy that after many years of public education still remains a problem.  There are simply not enough homes for all of these wonderful, innocent animals. 

The HSUS believes that limited-admission animal shelters, commonly called “no kill” shelters, can play a role in helping homeless companion animals find responsible, lifelong homes.  However, since these shelters are limited in the number of animals they can accept and care for there is still a need for shelters whose doors are open to all homeless animals.  Too often, stray animals suffer from starvation, disease, poisoning, abuse, injuries from traffic accidents, attacks by wildlife, and severe weather.  If not spayed or neutered, they bring more innocent animals into their world of suffering.

Humane euthanasia of homeless companion animals is preferable to the harsh lives and slow, painful deaths they face when they must fend for themselves outdoors.  Millions of dogs and cats enter shelters every year in the United States and currently it would be impossible to humanely keep all of these homeless animals in shelters.

The bottom line is that no shelter wants to euthanize animals.  The best way to change this reality is for everyone to do their part.  Adopt your next companion from a shelter, have all your pets spayed or neutered so they won’t contribute to the problem, and be a responsible pet owner – protect your pets with current identification tags and don’t let them roam.

The Kitsap Humane Society chooses to “rescue” some animals with little chance of finding a home otherwise.  These animals are sometimes purebreds that are hard to place, older animals, animals with non life threatening medical issues, and animals with behavior issues that we simply don’t have the time needed to help them.

We also offer other programs to help those less likely to be placed for adoption by lowering or completely waiving the adoption fee.  One of these programs is called “seniors for seniors’ where senior citizens (humans) can adopt senior citizen pets (5 years or older) for half the adoption fee. 

The Kitsap Humane Society has worked hard to reduce the number of animals that are euthanized each year and the statistics show the effort has been successful.