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Animal Shelters

Unwanted Animals Meet Different Fates at Different Places

Approximately 6 million to 8 million unwanted cats and dogs will be taken to animal shelters in the United States this year.

The fortunate will be taken to one of hundreds of open-admission animal shelters that are staffed by professional, caring people. At these facilities, frightened animals are reassured, sick and injured animals receive treatment or a peaceful end to their suffering, euthanasia is performed by intravenous injection of sodium pentobarbital (some animals are so small and fragile that intraperitoneal injections may be safer and less stressful for them), and the animals' living quarters are kept clean and dry. Workers at these facilities provide bedding for every animal who comes through their doors, never turn away needy animals, and give somber consideration to each animal's special emotional and physical needs. To be able to offer refuge to every animal in need, open-admission shelters must euthanize animals—the only humane way to handle the sheer numbers of animal refugees.

Many less fortunate homeless and unwanted animals end up in pitiful shelters that are nothing more than shacks without walls or other protection from the elements and where animals are often simply left to die from exposure, disease, fights, or infections.

Some people believe that when they can no longer care for their animal companions, it is kinder to take them to so-called "no-kill," or "turn-away," shelters. In many cases, this couldn't be further from the truth. If the animals are even accepted into these limited-admission operations, they may be warehoused for years in conditions no better than those found in an animal hoarder's home. The following are examples:

Missouri's Gloria Sutter pleaded guilty to eight counts of cruelty to animals after investigators reportedly found 198 ill cats and dogs at her Vanovia Animal Sanctuary in 2004. Sutter's reported history of amassing large numbers of animals evidently included the 1984 and 1986 discoveries, respectively, of 524 and 770 animals in poor health at the filthy facility.
North Carolina officials reported finding hundreds of dogs and cats deprived of proper food, water, shelter, and veterinary treatments at All Creatures Great and Small, a turn-away facility, in 2004. Animals were found tethered outside without shelter or shade, and dogs were kept in airline crates so small that they could not stand up, with no access to food or water.

At facilities like these, animals languish in inhumane conditions while operators award themselves the luxury of turning away thousands of needy animals deemed unadoptable by the operators. Where do these "undesirables" go? The lucky ones will be taken to clean open-admission facilities that have responsible policies about euthanasia and adoption.

But many animals who are refused by turn-away facilities never make it to the nearest open-admission shelter. Instead, they're dumped on the road, in the woods, or in the local hoarder's yard or given to other unscrupulous people. One day in June 2005, a Pennsylvania man tried to turn his dog over to such a facility. He was told that he would have to make an appointment for two weeks later, when the shelter might have room. The man grabbed his dog, got in his pickup truck, and left. At the next intersection, he threw the dog out of the truck and ran over him, crushing the dog beneath his tires. Shelter workers, who wouldn't help the dog before he died, collected the dog's remains.

If you know of a local turn-away facility, urge the board of directors to open its doors to every animal in need and to institute a euthanasia program to allow it to do so. These facilities need to know that you don't agree with their turn-away policies.

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