The difference between a no-kill animal shelter and a Kill shelter is obvious; it’s basic human instinct. When we find that our house is too cluttered, most of us take the initiative to clean it. This usually entitles many garbage bags, storage containers, and a trip to the city’s dump or donation center. The little thing are the first to go, mainly because we find that we have too many, or that we haven’t found use for them anymore.
Animals cannot stand up for themselves. They have no audible voice to the human ear, so we have to be the ones to stand up for them. Whose decision was it to end their lives? Not theirs, instead humans take the initiative to decide the lives of animals everywhere, but none of them wish for death, especially when all they need is a little sustenance and shelter. The issue though, is who is going to provide them with that. People who run animal shelters struggle every day to provide the unfortunate animals with their daily needs, and sometimes, they run out of the resources needed to make this happen. The breakdown of animal shelters begins here.
A common argument is that most No-Kill animal shelters don’t accept just any cat or dog off the street. This is actually quite common, and they are referred to as “limited admission shelters” On the other hand, "open admission shelters”, which are usually euthanization shelters, take whatever the "dog catcher" brings in, and since their local capacities for their shelters are limited, the excess animals must be euthanized. This is a very sad but true fact, and one of the hardest jobs for shelter workers is saying goodbye to a trusting dog or cat as they administer a humane death. Unfortunately, there are a few notorious shelters that still use extremely inhumane means of euthanasia. Franny Syufy, in the article Adopt a Shelter Cat, The Quandry: "Kill" or "No-Kill" Shelters? Says that the “Killing with Kindness" movement seeks a national law to require euthanasia in all shelters to be accomplished by humane means.
Another valid argument is that non-kill (or limited admission) shelters try to convince the public that there is no overpopulation problem, and therefore, spaying and neutering household pets is not necessary. Several debaters choose to believe this rumor, and unfortunately, the overpopulation problem can sometimes be traced to just this. People ignoring the facts, and not spaying and neutering their pets can lead to our pet overpopulation, which puts more stress on the animal shelter debates today. Most no kill shelters require spay or neuter as a condition of adoption, which could slowly be the solution to this problem.
In a situation like this, simply comparing the lives of the animals to junk around your house seems wrong. Instead, spay and neuter your pets, and all pets that are in animal shelters after a certain period of time. This way, our “donation center” won’t get overfilled; additionally, our “city dump” may be kept clean as well.