Mabel the Rescue Dog

4 min read (Articles narrated by Mabel)

When looking for a dog, many humans avoid kill shelters at all costs. They don’t want to be supporting shelters that kill animals, and Molly and I used to think the same way until recently. But regardless of how a shelter runs, all their dogs still need homes. Kill shelters don’t want to kill their dogs, but the lack of adoptions often leaves them with no choice.

Kill Shelters vs. No-Kill Shelters

Thankfully, no-kill shelters have become more and more popular over the years. However, it’s still sad to imagine that in a world as advanced as ours, perfectly healthy dogs are killed daily. It just doesn’t make sense.

Kill shelters still exist because there are more dogs in this world than humans willing to care for them. The main reason for that is because not enough people are adopting instead of buying. People domesticated dogs, yet for some reason they can’t seem to commit to caring for all of them. It’s heartbreaking to think about.

For shelters that accept every surrender that comes in, it can be difficult to be no-kill. If people are constantly dropping dogs off, then there’s likely not enough space to house them all. And with limited funds, it’s near impossible for some shelters to care for so many dogs at once.

Sadly, that’s the reason some shelters still kill. They don’t have enough funds and space for these dogs, and sadly, not enough people are willing to help. However, even if a shelter turns dogs away to save some of that space and money, then those dogs will likely still die somewhere else.

It’s a serious problem that many humans don’t even think about. That’s why I felt the need to bring it to people’s attention. The more humans that know about the severity of these problems, the more dogs that can be saved.

Reasons People Avoid Kill Shelters

As I mentioned before, many humans refuse to adopt or support kill shelters because they think they’re bad. They think the people who work there purposely want to kill dogs and make them suffer. But that couldn’t be further from the truth.

Sure, there are plenty of bad people out there, but there are plenty of good people too. Most shelter employees euthanize because they’re left with no other choice. They tried everything they could to find a home for a dog, but there’s just nothing else they can do. It’s such a soul-crushing job, but they feel it needs to be done.

I’m not saying it’s okay. In an ideal world, no dogs would die this way. But that’s the way the world works right now, and if more people don’t start caring, then more dogs will keep dying. Shelter employees want their dogs to survive, but they can’t become no-kill without support.

Unfortunately, many kill shelters also can’t afford to vaccinate all the dogs and get them all spayed and neutered, so that’s another thing that steers people away. Humans don’t want to have too many extra costs when adopting a dog, so they might argue that adopting from a kill shelter is inconvenient. But trust me, it’s not inconvenient to the dog that you would save.

Reasons We SHOULD Adopt From Kill Shelters

Dogs in kill shelters often don’t have much time left. Rescues will often transport at-risk dogs out of the shelter, but they can’t save them all in time. So, more people need to adopt from kill shelters. The dogs there are likely the ones who have had the hardest lives. They need a loving family to finally give them the comfort they deserve.

The last moments of a dog’s life should not be them sitting in a scary shelter, awaiting their scheduled death. That’s no way to die. They deserve to pass away peacefully when they’re old with their family by their side. If you adopt from a kill shelter, that dog will likely be more grateful than any dog has ever been before. And you’ll feel good knowing you saved their life.

Even if you don’t have a kill shelter near you, you should still adopt from a shelter or rescue instead of shop. The more dogs that are adopted, the more spaces that open up for more dogs to be rescued. If you adopt a dog from a rescue, they can transport another dog out of a kill shelter.

So, while you wouldn’t be directly saving a dog at a kill shelter, all adoption saves lives. Remember that next time you want to bring home a dog.

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