# Enough with the no-kill shelters and related wrongheadedness **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [August 2, 2011, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enough-with-the-no-kill-shelters-and-related-wrongheadedness/591226 "2011-08-02T22:25:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Kearsen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/82dd89/32.png) [@Kearsen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kearsen)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2011, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enough-with-the-no-kill-shelters-and-related-wrongheadedness/591226/21 "2011-08-03T20:27:51Z")
> [@Stoid](#): > > It would depend on any number of factors, and I don’t think it’s wise to be entirely cut and dried, because that’s the problem with no-kill itself: never kill, no matter how miserable the existence, period. That’s incredibly wrong. So i wouldn’t replace it with a cut & dried kill date, either. But there would be smart guidelines: puppies and young healthy dogs definitely get more time than old or sick. Popular breeds get more time than unpopular breeds. Dogs that have been tested and display good temperments get more time than those that don’t. It’s not rocket science… > > Good way to put it. > > I didn’t want to be directly insulting to anyone with this, but I have to say that some of what I see on these facebook pages makes me absolutely crazy. All this endless gooey crap\* coupled with hysteria at the idea of a dog dying seems extremely self-serving and reflects things that actually have very little to do with the dogs and everything to do with the people acting out like this. It’s terribly frustrating to see so much effort basically wasted. > > Oh, and there’s a third aspect that offends me: the gore porn. There’s a few pages that seem to almost enjoy finding the most foul photographs of the most revolting stories and posting them directly, no buffer zone. I’ve called 'em out for a it a few times, particularly in the cases where there is no good purpose served. The most egregious example was a close-up photograph of the fatal impalement of a dog that had been killed by burglers in the process of defending its family. That really pissed me off and undermined my faith in the sincerity of the people running the page, who defended it as necessary to show that animals suffer, which of course was complete horseshit. I don’t object when it’s there to shock people into taking note of someone who is systematically torturing animals, but the killing of a good dog by criminals…what the fuck was that supposed to do, except give a bunch of drama queens something to freak out about? > > Grr. > \*baby talk, words like “precious” thrown around, and WAY too much “sleeping with the angels/rainbow bridge”. Sorry, just curls my toes and makes me even more convinced that these people are working out issues that have pretty much nothing to do with animal rescue. Obama-Care for dogs, I love it! Just kidding, I agree with the premise if not the method as well. I love dogs but I can also see the need to ‘thin the herd’ so to speak (certainly the elderly and the sick have almost zero chance of being adopted) ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2011, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enough-with-the-no-kill-shelters-and-related-wrongheadedness/591226/22 "2011-08-03T20:29:58Z")
> [@Kearsen](#): > > Obama-Care for dogs, I love it! Actually thats raises a serious issue (although another side track), how much the pet insurance industry (just as the human health insurance industry) has caused veterinary costs to go through the roof ---
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2011, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enough-with-the-no-kill-shelters-and-related-wrongheadedness/591226/23 "2011-08-03T20:46:49Z")
> [@griffin1977](#): > > lost track of the basic fact that you are doing them favor by adopting an abandoned animal, not the other way round. I’m genuinely sorry you see it that way. I don’t think I did [Pryor’s Planet](http://www.pryorsplanet.com/) a favor at all when I adopted [Mr. Preston Digitation](http://www.helpstoidstopthepain.info/preston/), instead I was deeply _grateful_ they had rescued him from a shelter and cared for him and introduced him to me and let him be my Handsome Black Boyfriend. ---
**Author:** ![Crawlspace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Crawlspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crawlspace)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2011, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enough-with-the-no-kill-shelters-and-related-wrongheadedness/591226/24 "2011-08-03T21:12:44Z")
> [@miss\_elizabeth](#): > > I agree that more people should adopt, rather than get dogs from bad breeders; you are saving the dog’s life, and **you are getting the same dog, essentially**. It isn’t like the “breeding” from those puppy mills is worth a damn. I think pet adoption agencies would be a lot more successful if they emphasized the point I bolded. They need to stop calling it adoption and start calling them Certified Pre-Owned Dogs and Cats. ---
**Author:** ![miss\_elizabeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@miss\_elizabeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/miss_elizabeth)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2011, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enough-with-the-no-kill-shelters-and-related-wrongheadedness/591226/25 "2011-08-03T21:16:20Z")
> [@Crawlspace](#): > > I think pet adoption agencies would be a lot more successful if they emphasized the point I bolded. They need to stop calling it adoption and start calling them Certified Pre-Owned Dogs and Cats. LOL, I’ve actually said that before! Also, I was thinking about it and I wanted to say that most rescue organizations are awesome, and are doing awesome work. Very few are the hoarder types I mentioned. It’s just something I’ve dealt with and seen, and it’s a personal pet peeve of mine. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2011, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enough-with-the-no-kill-shelters-and-related-wrongheadedness/591226/26 "2011-08-03T21:28:44Z")
> [@Stoid](#): > > Instead of focusing on it as some kind of intrusion, you could change your perspective and be glad of the help in increasing your odds of success in finding the pet that is really the right one for you. As it stands, I certainly understand your perspective. While I am not so arrogant as to suggest someone else should change their perspective I will at least explain mine. I do not care for strangers to be in my home without a good reason. No, making sure Rover is going to like my home is not a good enough reason to have a stranger in my home. I accept that some shelters or organizations feel it is necessary in order to protect the best interest of the dog (let’s not pretend they’re doing this for my sake). However, I will simply look elsewhere for a dog. If they want to confirm that I live at an address they can ask for a recent utility bill or even stop by to say hi. They don’t get to look around the inside of my house though. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2011, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enough-with-the-no-kill-shelters-and-related-wrongheadedness/591226/27 "2011-08-03T21:32:08Z")
> [@Odesio](#): > > It goes beyond pet animals though. There were communities that were/are plagued by white tailed deer. Visited a person whose yard bordered on a forest preserve. At 5:30PM there was a doe in her back yard and another four just outside it. Mentioned that, at 5:30 **AM** , nobody was likely to notice a single shot from a .30-30 and there’s a lot of good eating on a white-tail. Agree about the dogs. There are legal limits on the number of dogs I can have and I have two already that I saved from a shelter. ETA: Damn, the deer around here get so fat and meaty they need to be reminded they are a couple rungs down on the food chain. ---
**Author:** ![code\_grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f4b2a3/32.png) [@code\_grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/code_grey)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2011, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enough-with-the-no-kill-shelters-and-related-wrongheadedness/591226/28 "2011-08-04T03:32:57Z")
maybe we need State-mandated _affirmative adoption_ and pets-rights regulations to force current pet owners to take in a few extra unwanted shelter animals of the more ill-behaved variety. Also, the pet owner will be required to install the video equivalent of worker treatment rules posters (in two languages, the dog and the cat ones) in the apartment to make sure that the close-the-gaps pets would know their rights. This will also help alleviate lawyer unemployment thanks to all the mistreatment lawsuits that will be filed by the affirmatively adopted pets against their owners. Of particular concern to the Justice Department will be preventing speciesm-motivated mistreatment from rearing its ugly head, such as if the owner really wanted to have a cat but was forced to get a stray dog-wolf mix instead. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enough-with-the-no-kill-shelters-and-related-wrongheadedness/591226.md?page=1)