What is a Pet Adoption Shelter?

An adoption shelter is an organization that is designed to take care of animals. They all have the same goal, which is to ease the suffering of animals, as well as educate people about the responsible care of pets and the need of spaying and neutering. The pets that end up in adoption shelters are often abandoned, dumped, abused, neglected, handicapped, or sick. Most of these adoption shelters are run by volunteers, and exist on donations.

They do have adoption fees, but they are very minimal, and barely cover the costs associated with the pets. When a pet is adopted from a shelter, they generally have their current vaccinations and are spayed or neutered. Most adoption shelters have a very difficult adopting procedure, which allows them to ensure that the pets they adopt out won't be coming back.

There are about 6 - 8 million pets that enter adoption shelters each year, and 3 - 4 million of them are euthanized, or killed. Adoption shelters don't have any maximum time limit that they hold an animal before euthanizing it, however it is based on the adoptability of the animal and the space available to house the animal. In that time, their main goal is to keep the animal healthy and adoptable. The best way to prevent so many unnecessary deaths at adoption shelters is to spay or neuter your pets. It is also important that all pets have current identification tags on them, in case they get lost.

Some of the adoption shelters are "no kill" shelters. They are limited in the number of animals that they can house and take care of, but they don't believe in the euthanasia of healthy pets. Instead, they will take care of as many animals as they can, but often aren't able to take new pets because of space limitations.

There is also a national organization, The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), that devotes much of it's time and resources to improving local adoption shelters and animal control agencies. They have been responsible in defining national shelter standards, guidelines, and recommendations for care and operations of the shelters. They also provide direct and indirect support for spay and neuter programs, the only way to prevent overpopulation.

They have given millions of dollars to the local adoption shelters and veterinary schools to launch spay and neuter programs for pets. In short, they were the voice that was able to fight against animal cruelty and celebrate the human-animal bond.