It goes without saying that nothing compares to a permanent home with a loving human. However, a shelter isn’t the absolute worst place an animal can end up, despite many having quite a different opinion.
A lot of pets come to rescue centers from abusive households, dangerous streets, and even more unimaginable conditions. Strays that are often malnourished, injured, disabled, matted, and caked in dirt receive the help they need and are given refuge, food, water, and medical care after being brought to a shelter.
Millions of animals depend on shelters for fresh water, food, and medications. Staff and volunteers start each day by checking on all the animals, providing them with exercise, cleaning their enclosures, and ensuring they’re fed.
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Animals are also provided with extra veterinary care, like sterilization, vaccination, and worm and parasite treatments to prevent the spread of any disease throughout. As pets come and go, they have to process intakes and adoptions as well.
Those organizations that are lucky to have more hands do their best to improve animals’ chances of adoption by posting them online and telling people all about them.
Some more successful shelters go even further and educate the public about adoption and the importance of sterilization, vaccinations, and other animal-related matters, all while making their organization appear friendly, so people are more eager to adopt.
This takes a lot of hard work, not only physically but also emotionally. The people who take care of these animals see a lot of devastating sights, whether that’s limited funds, a new pet that has come in, or a furry creature that is destined to spend its last days in its enclosure. Shelters’ staff put a grueling effort into caring for the welfare of animals, and sadly, many people aren’t aware of it.
In fact, some people still imagine shelters to be inhumane sanctuaries where animals receive little to no medical care and face a fatal end if not adopted or retrieved by their owners. While, unfortunately, some shelters horribly mistreat animals, the majority of them have immensely evolved over the years, even with tight budgets and an overflow of stray pets. What’s truly amazing is that in the US, animal shelters are becoming closer than ever to achieving a no-k**l status.
No-k**l is a community committed to saving every pet in a shelter that can be saved. Almost 2 out of 3 shelters in the US currently have the no-k**l status, which means that they rescue at least 90% of animals that enter their facilities from a fatal end. Over the last eight years, there’s been a 60% drop in the number of pets that are euthanized in the United States.
"We are now at a time where the 90 percent or above benchmark for shelters to be no-k**l is not only widely accepted but has also become the new normal. Nearly two out of three shelters are achieving this lifesaving goal," said Julie Castle, CEO of Best Friends Animal Society (BFAS).
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To help shelters reach no-k**l nationwide, we can also do our part by continuing to adopt, foster, volunteer, donate, or even share the pets from local shelters on social media.
"The shelters do not have the resources to help with special cases, which is why partnership with animal rescue groups and the community is so important and critical to pet lifesaving,” Castle explained.
