“Kill shelters” are the shelters you need to donate to.
“But shrimp!! Kill shelters are evil!!”
No, shut up, listen to me for a second.
“Kill shelter” is a colloquial term used primarily for Town/City (aka municipal) shelters that rely on incredibly limited government grant funding to operate.
These shelters, by the very nature of their existence, DO NOT HAVE the funds to operate like private rescues do.
On top of this, they’re also *legally required* to take in ANY animal that comes to them. Even if they’re full. Or they’ll lose all of their funding.
This is what leads them to needing to euthanize for space. Is euthanizing for space sad? Yes. But due to the current crisis, it’s also NECESSARY.
These shelters are constantly overfull. They’re STRUGGLING. They don’t have the funds to operate properly. And yet these municipal, government funded, struggling shelters are the same ones that are most likely to be providing care for owned animals in the community
Municipal (“kill”) shelters are the ones hosting low cost spay and neuter clinics. They’re the ones discounting vaccination appointments and microchipping. They’re the ones that have pet food banks so struggling pet owners can feed their pets that week.
These shelters are not evil. They’re doing the absolute best they can with the bare minimum funding they get.
These people are incredibly resourceful and care very deeply about the animals in their care. It breaks their heart every time they have to euthanize an animal that couldn’t get adopted.
These underfunded shelters need your money significantly more than that fancy private rescue you see on TikTok or instagram that has a beautiful facility and has never had to euthanize an animal ever.
Support your local shelters and they will give back to the community thousand fold.
Sincerely, an animal welfare student who’s tired of seeing the hardest working professionals shat on because of circumstances they can’t control.
(Also there are many instances where euthanasia is the most humane option)
Listen I worked in a kill shelter. I cried for animals.
Most of the cats put down were feral and vicious, but there was exceptions and it was sad. There was a pit bull we couldn't adopt out because of a local law prohibiting the shelter from adopting out pit bulls. We kept praying for it's owner to show because it was well socialized and sweet... at first. After 3 months it had been in the kennel so long it had gone crazy and started attacking people other than those it knew well, so was put down.
The shelter got a large donation once. It meant having the funds to work with other shelters to move animals out. It meant we got to send more animals to adoption events and send the best animals into foster homes and to no kill shelters where they had better odds. Every worker there had taken home at least one animal that had been slated for euthanasia.
Point is those places do the best they can, and when you give funds they have more resources to save the animals that may be otherwise put down.
The kill shelter I used to volunteer at recently got to a funding point they have not put down any animals in years, enough to be rated as no kill despite taking any animal dropped off. FUND THEM.






















