Animal Rescue
We Can’t Save Them All – The Future Of Animal Rescue
Nobody likes to watch those public service announcements about adopting shelter animals. They show us pitifully dirty and sick dogs and cats sitting mournfully alone in tiny cages, rows upon rows of them. We are told it is up to us to save them and it is. The question is how we go about it and the answers are many.
There are two types of animal shelters that are run by two types of organizations. Animal rescues are either facilities which will humanely euthanize any animal which has not been adopted within s certain time frame or they are a no-kill animal rescue which means that they will keep the animal indefinitely until it is adopted, although they will euthanize an animal that is too sick or aggressive. Both types of shelters are either privately run through the city or county they reside in and are funded by taxpayer dollars.
Facilities, which put a timeline on an animal’s life, are not necessarily the bad guys. When they work cooperatively with other local shelters to place animals that are adoptable it greatly reduces the number of animals they have to put down. In additions, when they have programs in which medical treatment is available as well as training for animals with behavioral disorders they are much more likely to find homes for them. In the case of feral cats there is an adoption called TNR, standing for trap, neuter, and release, which has been very successful although it is rarely a low cost program. Many of these cats can then be released as barn cats, which can be very beneficial in rural communities in keeping the rodent population down. No-kill animal rescues sound great. Nobody enjoys putting down a healthy animal but these facilities can sometimes be crueler than their counterpart. Many a hoarder has been created with the intention of running a private no-kill facility. In these cases, too many animals are taken in without the know-how to get them adopted out.
Nobody likes to watch those public service announcements about adopting shelter animals. They show us pitifully dirty and sick dogs and cats sitting mournfully alone in tiny cages, rows upon rows of them. We are told it is up to us to save them and it is. The question is how we go about it and the answers are many.
There are two types of animal shelters that are run by two types of organizations. Animal rescues are either facilities which will humanely euthanize any animal which has not been adopted within s certain time frame or they are a no-kill animal rescue which means that they will keep the animal indefinitely until it is adopted, although they will euthanize an animal that is too sick or aggressive. Both types of shelters are either privately run through the city or county they reside in and are funded by taxpayer dollars.
Facilities, which put a timeline on an animal’s life, are not necessarily the bad guys. When they work cooperatively with other local shelters to place animals that are adoptable it greatly reduces the number of animals they have to put down. In additions, when they have programs in which medical treatment is available as well as training for animals with behavioral disorders they are much more likely to find homes for them. In the case of feral cats there is an adoption called TNR, standing for trap, neuter, and release, which has been very successful although it is rarely a low cost program. Many of these cats can then be released as barn cats, which can be very beneficial in rural communities in keeping the rodent population down. No-kill animal rescues sound great. Nobody enjoys putting down a healthy animal but these facilities can sometimes be crueler than their counterpart. Many a hoarder has been created with the intention of running a private no-kill facility. In these cases, too many animals are taken in without the know-how to get them adopted out.