Are No-Kill Shelters the way to go?

To begin I wish to tell the story of Sally.  Sally was a Shih Tzu dog, rescued from a puppy mill where she was kept in a cage her entire life breeding over and over.  If you are not familiar with puppy mills, they are where pet stores get their pups at the expense of hundreds of suffering adult breeding dogs.  Anyhow, Sally was rescued by a "no-kill" shelter, she was spayed, and found to be riddled with cancer.  Her rescuers signed her up for chemotherapy and found her a foster home.  She was terrified of grass, having never walked on a lawn, and could not be house trained.  As her medical bills were huge, and her manners not great, she was unadoptable. 

The foster home loved Sally, but over time watched as her personality deteriorated because of the chemotherapy.  Even they felt she should be euthanized.  Over time the responsibility of this dog, and the refusal of the shelter to euthanize the dog, resulted in the family being unwilling to foster more pets. The expense occured by this dog stopped the shelter from providing care for other animals.

Not all "No-Kill" shelters have stories of this extreme, and I do applaud them for trying to help animals, but there are more issues.  Dogs in particular require a good deal of mental stimulation in order to be kept mentally happy.  A dog living in a shelter cage with only limited human contact is not going to be having a happy life.  If the shelter is set up as a no-kill shelter, at what point does this become cruel?   While good in theory, problems like these need to be adressed.   

When full, "No-Kill" shelters have to turn animals away.  Thus possibly forcing an owner to euthanize a well adujsted dog because they have no room for it.  That room maybe taken up by unadoptable dogs with issues. 

This is a happy dog, photo from Wikimedia, all dogs should be happy. 

Shelters who practice euthanasia don't do it because they like it.  Nor do they do it because they hate animals.  They do it because they do not have room, and more animals come in every week than get adopted.  They select the most adoptable ones for adoption and hope that adoptions are high enough that they can save more the next week. 

Shelters euthanize the dogs who are agressive, or otherwise unadoptable.  They also euthanize dogs who have been up for adoption for sometime, but whom never got adopted.  This is because they realize living in a cage is not fair to the dog mentally, and that dog is taking up space, which would force a possibly more adoptable dog to be put down.  It is not an easy choice for the staff to euthanize a dog they have looked after for so long. 

Final Points

I do not wish to take away any good things from "No-Kill" shelters, many do fine work, but they need to have provisions such that suffering dogs, or unadoptable animals can be euthanized so that more animals can be helped in the long run.  

When considering getting a pet, always check shelters, (both kinds) first, and stay out of the Pet Stores who sell pups. 

The name of the Dog in the story was changed, although every other fact is true.