Natalie Bodily

English 2010

No Kill Shelters

About 6 to 8 million animals are brought into animal shelters each year. Of those 6 to 8 million animals
roughly 4 million are euthanized. Out of the animals euthanized 2.7 were adoptable.
(cocoparisienne,pixabay)

No kill shelters around the nation are helping reduce the amount of deaths each year. In a no kill shelter
animals are only killed if they are too aggressive to be helped or too sick to be helped. The goal of a no
kill shelter is to rehabilitate each animal that is brought in. (Jean. Pair of shelter kittens. 2007. flickr)

No kill shelters have introduced many programs to help their goal. One of the programs is the spay and
neuter programs. This program offers pet owners the option to spay and neuter their pets a low cost.
Many shelters also have a mobile program set up that helps with the spay and neutering of stray
animals. This program reduces the number of stray animals and animal overpopulation. (Sonia Su.
Hildreth. Adoption Center Transportation Day. 2013. flickr.)

Pet adoption is heavily promoted by no kill shelters. Their end goal is to providea home for each animal.
These adoptions help educate the general population of the importance of adopting from animal
shelters. Many shelters team up with pet stores and hold adoptions there. (Patrick Kwan. Adopt a Pet,
Live Longer! 2007. flickr)

These adoptions can often help bring awareness and spotlight to animals who have a harder time being
adopted giving them a better chance to be seen. One example of this is the pit bull breed. The breed has
a bad reputation making it harder for those dogs to survive in a shelter. By being spotlighted at adoption
events they are given a chance at finding a home. (jodylehigh. Pixabay)

No kill shelters have also made an effort to have puppy mills shut down in order to help reduce the
amount of homeless animals. These mills breed dogs for sale. Many of the unsold dogs end up at the
shelters. (Josh Henderson. 2009. flickr)

The shelters are made possible with the help of volunteers, donations, and the
community. Studies have shown that when communities show their support and
help the shelters the improvement of the facility greatly increased.

The amount of animals killed each year can decrease with the help of everyone. Supporting these no kill
shelters will help this cause greatly. No kill shelters are the main reason the homeless pet population
and the death of innocent animals has decreased over the last few years. It doesn't take much; little by
little we can all make the difference in the life of a homeless animal and support no kill shelters. (Jeffrey
Beall. Denver Animal Shelter. 2011. flickr)