What is a Humane Society, anyway?

Do you know the difference between your local animal shelter and others? Do you understand that organizations calling themselves no-kill, euthanize animals? Do you understand why that’s sometimes necessary?

There is a lot of misunderstanding surrounding the animal welfare or the animal sheltering system in America. Having worked in and around it for the better part of the last 30 years, I think it’s important to ensure we have clarity and all understand the profession.

In general, there are 3 primary types of animal shelters along with a few subsets within. And though their names sometimes intertwine, we can identify the differences in how they’re set-up.

Government or Municipal Shelter

A government shelter is a shelter that has been created to deal with the surplus animals in a community. They often include or are a branch of an impound facility. Since these organizations are tax-payer funded (and typically a line item on an otherwise expansive balance sheet), they often don’t have a lot of bells and whistles. This means they spend less per night on animals than other organizations.

Government organizations are consider open-admission which means they always accept animals in need, even when they’re full. And typically these organizations are full or close to full. Meaning that weekly the number of animals coming in for help far surpasses the people coming in to adopt those waiting.

The cost per night for an animal increases when the organizations has a medical and/or a behavioral department. Since these organizations are tied to the city budget they are often limited in the amount of medical or behavioral support they can give. Some government shelters have become beacon’s for the rest of the nation, others struggle to provide the bare minimum.

Humane Society

A humane society is a non-profit organization that was formed by a group of animal-loving citizens to handle the homeless dogs and cats of the area. As private organizations, they have the ability to define the quality of care they provide and the method they provide it. These organizations may handle all the animals in the area or act as a support to the government organization already established.

• A Humane Society with a government contract is very similar to the government run agency above in that any animal that comes to them in need – from their community – must be helped. This is considered open-admission. The difference though is that the Humane Society still sets the tone, the price per night for the animal and the care and support the animal will receive.

  Often there's a discrepancy between the amount per night the organization receives from the government and the actual cost. The difference is absorbed by the non-profit.

• A Humane Society without a government contract often acts as a major support system to a community. Those that stop taking animals when they're full are considered limited-admission. These types of organizations can often provide support to an area – especially one where the government organization is severely over-burdened and/or underfunded.

Rescue

Rescue’s are often small, non-profits, formed to help certain types of animals. Initially, many Rescues were breed-specific and run by breeders who wanted to look out for their favorite breeds. More recently, many offer an alternative to the government-run facility or their local Animal Shelter. Many rescues focus on certain types of animals or particular ages, others only take animals from certain areas. Since Rescues pick and chose what animals they take in, they are considered limited-admission.

Many Rescues are Foster-based, meaning they don’t have a facility but rely on caring individuals to take the animals into their homes and foster them until they find their lifelong families. Rescues can often be broken down into 3-types:

• Foster-based Rescues who foster animals through the homes of their volunteers and supporters; often these organizations don’t have a building or have a limited area for holding and assessment

• Or it may be a financial supporting organization: an organization that doesn’t house animals at all but instead raises money to support programs at their Government organization or throughout their community (spay/neuter, education, etc)

• The 3rd type or Misc category includes Sanctuaries, Ranches and Rehab Centers; unique organizations popping up across the country to assist animals in need

Impound

A pound, or impound facility is the location where animals in custody are kept. In some cases it’s while the animals are considered stray or while their owner is incapacitated. If an animal is stray they are often held for 3-5 days in order for their families to find and claim them. After the allotted time the animal is considered owned by the agency and dealt with under their protocols.

The impound facility can be located within another organization or as a separate entity. Some Animal Control Departments are part of the police force others are stand-alone or within a private group.

National Oversight

It’s important to note that there is no national organization looking at animal shelters, or even animal protection organizations. The ones most commonly mistaken in this regard are the ASPCA and the HSUS. Both have their own missions and both provide resources to shelters but neither has national oversight. As of 2025, Only 15 states even have a department to oversee shelters, fosters and rescues!

Kill No-kill

Now lets tackle the kill no-kill nomenclature. So-called kill shelters are those shelters who euthanize animals for space. They do this because on any given day, 10 animals come in and only 2 or 3 are adopted out. The number in-need far surpasses their ability to house them all. Some are transferred but transferring takes time and resources, which many of these facilities struggle to get and maintain.

A no-kill organization, is any organization who only euthanizes for medical or behavioral reasons. These are typically organizations that are limited-admission – not required to accept any/all animal in need, but not always. Although there’s no ‘set in the sand’ rule, the goal is to only euthanize 10% of the total animals for medical or behavioral reasons.

Unfortunately though, there is no standard for basic medical and behavioral coverage. What is acceptable and treatable to one organization, isn’t for another. For example if one organization has a policy (and the money) to treat kittens with ringworm, their kittens will be treated. While another organization may not have the isolation ability or the medical support to treat ringworm so entire litters will be euthanized and it will be deemed medical euthanasia.

No organization wants to euthanize animals. And few people want to relinquish theirs, but life happens and sometimes you're no longer able to care for yours. Our animal sheltering system was built on providing a resource to those in need. Unfortunately, limited-admission sheltering takes away any resources for the animals, and leaves the individual human with few if any choices.

Does it matter what we call them? 

Consider that the reason government organizations exist in the first place is to deal with the problem of surplus animals in the community. If we, as a Country were in balance – had an equal number of dogs and cats to homes available we wouldn’t need them. It’s because we still have more dogs and cats than available homes that government organizations even exist.

The kill no-kill nomenclature puts emphasis on the strategy we as a country use to ensure we have the right to always breed animals. Think about it, we’ve been humanely euthanizing surplus animals for decades, before that we were doing it not-so-humanely but same strategy. Instead of focusing on the strategy (hasn’t worked up to this point) lets focus on the actual problem: more animals than available homes.

Also consider, money follows peoples perceptions and the majority of money goes to so called no-kill organizations even though the government organizations are the ones struggling with the surplus numbers and truly needing the funds.

Should we euthanize?

We need organizations, impound facilities and animal shelters to house animals but also to determine those that are no longer fit to live in society. As the professionals, it’s their job to cull the animals that are no longer thriving or who are dangerous. And to ensure it’s done humanely with as little pain or discomfort as possible.

The alternative to euthanizing animals is to warehouse animals. This requires them to live in confinement for the remainder of their lives. This is an expensive path which many Rescues follow. Unfortunately, it doesn’t take into account weather or not the animal is thriving, just the feelings of the humans involved.

Effects of Overpopulation

When we have more pets than homes, all areas of animal welfare are affected. Not only are we an assembly line: with a non-stop surplus coming in needing help, we’re not able to spend necessary time on each animal before adoption. And of course, we cannot add the bells and whistles (advanced behavioral and medical support). It’s triage and we do what we can with what we have until we have a bit of elbow room. When it’s determined an animal needs a $5,000 procedure, do we spend it on one animal or do we spend the same $5,000 on 20 animals??

Personally I love animal shelters. I love knowing that if I drive from New Mexico to New Hampshire and get in an accident along the way, there’s someone to watch out for my kiddos until I can make arrangements. That being said, it’s time for some accountability, oversight and basic minimum standards. Animal shelters rock. Some of the smartest most intuitive people I’ve met work within them but it’s time we implemented some industry standards and tackled the real problem in our country; overpopulation.