Responsible Sheltering for a Humane Community: Moving Beyond the No-Kill Label

So we prioritize visits to municipal shelters and we did so on this tour.

Sometimes we will also go to private shelters that function as the municipal shelter in places that have no animal services.

And remarkably, there are a lot of those places that depend on private rescues or private shelter to do the work.

that animal care and control typically does in most municipalities in this country.

The reason that we focus on municipal animal services are because we think they're critical for every municipality because without them, animals suffer and residents are at risk.

Traditionally, all municipal shelters practiced open admissions or open intake That was the norm.

That was the way things were always done.

And that means that they accept animals from animal control officers, of course, good Samaritans, people who find lost animals, and owner-surrendered animals.

And they also house animals who are on bite quarantine for rabies, animals that are involved in a court case and have been seized for any number of reasons, animals with nowhere to go, ones whose owners have died.

have for instance been involved in a car accident or they've been imprisoned or they're hospitalized so they have always been the safety net the place that will take your animal even if every little private rescue out there says no If there is no one, no family member, no one else to take your animal, the shelter would always take your animal.

That's the way it always was.

That began to shift.

I want to say we started really noticing municipal shelters becoming managed intake right around 2019.

I think I first heard it in 2018, but about 2019.

But during COVID, it just ramped up.

It became the thing.

And there was so much pressure.

And I have done other podcasts and videos and again and again said, this is not because no-kill is a bad thing.

I'm not here to say that.

The no-kill practices as they were originally created were wonderful and have made a huge difference.

And they have changed everything.

But The way it's been interpreted now is that no kill means 90% of the animals who come into your shelter get out alive, period.

That's just the way it is.

The problem with that, it's not a problem actually for a private managed intake rescue operation because they choose who they take in and who they don't.

So it's not that challenging for them to save 90% of the animals that come in their door.