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| Home > ACHS about our "No Kill" Policy |
Q. I understand you’re a "No Kill" shelter.
What exactly does that mean?
A. Here at the Addison County Humane Society, "No Kill" means that we
guarantee a home for every adoptable animal we take in. Animals are euthanized
only if they are too sick to be rehabilitated, or too aggressive to be safely
placed in a home. ACHS never euthanizes animals to make space for new animals.
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ACHS No-Kill
FAQ
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Q. Does this mean that you turn animals away?
A. ACHS serves as an animal control holding facility for nearly every town in our county.
Stray dogs picked up by Animal Control Officers are accepted 24 hours a day. We accept
cats, dogs, and other small animals from Addison County residents as space permits.
Sometimes the animals are accepted immediately, and other times they are put on a
waiting list.
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Q. Are you "Limited Admission" in that you pick
and choose which animals you will take?
A. ACHS does not discriminate when admitting cats and dogs and will take any cat
or dog when cage space is available. All cats and dogs receive the same love and
commitment by our staff when they are admitted. Sometimes we take in animals that
have physical limitations or behavioral issues that take longer to adopt. With
time, however, the right person always comes through the door and provides
these animals with the loving home they so greatly deserve.
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Q. What happens to the animals on the
waiting list?
A. When people contact us and sign up on our waiting list to surrender an
animal, they are counseled on ways in which they can work on re-homing
the animal while it awaits its turn at ACHS. We advise people to run ads
in the local paper, provide them guidance on screening potential adopters,
and also offer them our Third Party Adoption service. The vast majority of
people we talk with are happy to put forth some effort to re-home their
animal, and all are happier knowing that if and when they do bring their
animal in to ACHS, it won’t be killed.
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Q. What is your Third Party Adoption service?
A. For animals waiting to come in to ACHS or for owners wishing to re-home their animal
without bringing it to the shelter, ACHS provides a service to effectively advertise
their animal on 4 different high traffic websites. Owners can send us a photo of their
animal and a description, and we will post the animal’s profile on AddisonHumane.org,
Petfinder.com, 800SaveAPet.com, and Pets911.com. We ask that all animals are spayed
or neutered and up to date on their vaccinations. Our Third Party Adoption service
has been greatly successful at placing animals in wonderful homes, and eliminating
the need to bring them into the shelter at all.
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Q. If people are turned away, won’t they just abandon
their animals at the side of the road?
A. Interestingly, the answer to this question is "No." Some people do, sadly,
abandon their animals from time to time. There is, however, no evidence to
suggest this happens as a result of being told by the shelter they have to
wait to come in. Based on our conversations with members of the public,
police, and local animal control officers, it seems as though animals were
abandoned at an even greater rate before ACHS became a "No Kill" facility.
The shelter would have accepted them, but people felt compelled to set them
'free" rather than subject them to the chance that they would be "euthanized"
at the shelter. ACHS actually receives about half a dozen calls a week from
people outside of our county wishing to surrender their animals to our shelter
rather than their local shelter. Many of these people refuse to take their
animals to their local shelter for fear they will be killed.
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Q. What if, hypothetically, someone was
told they’d have to wait to bring their animal in, and instead, just
decides to kill it? Wouldn’t it have been better for the animal to be
humanely euthanized by the shelter?
A. Looking at the math, you’ll see that it is in the best interest of the
animals that the shelter maintains it’s "No Kill" status. Let’s say, for
example, that there are 20 cats waiting to come into the shelter. If
ACHS were "Open Admission," meaning accept any animal at any time, then
20 existing cats would have to be killed to make room for the new ones.
It is highly likely that all 20 of the cats waiting to come in are with
owners that are content to wait until space is available or willing to
use another option like running an ad in the paper or using our Third
Party Adoption service. If there happens to be a cat on the waiting
list that is under the care of someone cruel and mentally disturbed,
that cat may, in fact, be in danger. While we hate the thought of
any animal being in danger, we do not believe it warrants the senseless
killing of the animals currently in our care. Additionally, there are
strong animal cruelty laws in place in the state of Vermont, and ACHS
heads up the Addison County Anti-Cruelty Coalition, to make sure that
those laws are enforced.
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Q. Is it really humane to keep an animal
at the shelter for an extended period of time?
A. We do everything in our power to help ensure the health and well-being
of the animals we serve. Animals at the shelter are given lots of love and
attention by staff and volunteers during their stay. Dogs are walked on
average of 4 times per day and cats get out of their cages daily for
stretching their legs, exercise, grooming, and play time. Cats that
have been at the shelter for an extended period of time are allowed
free run of the shelter if they get along with other animals. It’s
not uncommon to see a variety of cats lounging around the office,
lobby, and play rooms.
While we understand that living at the shelter is not as comfortable as
living in a permanent home, we do our best to keep the animals comfortable.
And, to put things in perspective, if a cat stays here 6 months to a year
and is then adopted to a loving home where it gets to spend the next 10+
years of its life, isn’t that worth the wait?
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Q. What role do foster homes play in supporting your work?
A. Foster homes help ACHS and the animals in a number of important ways. Foster
homes provide a safe and comfortable environment for mother cats to care for
their nursing litters, help orphaned kittens get a good start with care and
bottle feeding, and provide a safe haven for animals that would make great
pets, but simply aren’t doing well in the shelter environment. Additionally,
foster homes provide shelter for animals in emergency situations like those
seized in cruelty investigations, and women fleeing from domestic violence
situations.
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Q. What else are you doing to stem the influx of unwanted animals?
A. Well, our work certainly wouldn’t be complete with spay/neuter! Spaying and
neutering animals is critically important to preventing the birth of more homeless
animals. ACHS requires that all cats and dogs adopted from our shelter are spayed
and neutered without exception. Additionally, ACHS is now working with the community
to help get feral and barn cats spayed and neutered.
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