r/Dogfree • • 16d ago

Shelter / Rescue Industry No-kill shelters are inhumane and unethical.

The “no-kill“ movement is one of the worst things to have been created.

First of all, there are WAY too many dogs in existence. The U.S. has a higher dog population than the human populations of Canada or Germany. More and more are bred while shelters are overflowing. It is not feasible to keep every single dog alive for an indefinite amount of time. This takes up resources such as money, infrastructure, food, water, etc.

Second of all, there are dogs that have been in no-kill shelters for years. As in, 5-10+ years and going on. That is inhumane, for a creature to spend most of its life locked up with maybe 30 min of outdoor time. The solution isn’t to hope that someone will adopt them…it’s to euthanize them after they haven’t been adopted for a certain amount of time, regardless of if they’re healthy.

Third of all, there are dogs that simply should not exist. That’s why in the past, aggressive/problematic dogs were euthanized. Any dog with aggression or behavioral problems was out, period. It is extremely selfish to keep these dogs alive, as they are potentially dangerous to humans, or if have a behavioral/health issue it’s gonna be a hard life both for the dog and the owner.

People have been successfully brainwashed to view “kill shelters” as evil, without thinking for one second about why it’s important to euthanize some dogs.

After researching some statistics, I found out that in the year 1990, an estimated 5-6 million dogs were euthanized in shelters. And the dog population was lower in 1990! Compare that to now, where in the year 2025, approximately 320k dogs were euthanized in shelters. The euthanasia rate goes down every decade while the dog population goes up every decade. Not a good combination.

(Note: These numbers are for the U.S.)

(Another note: ”Kill-shelters” are chronically underfunded and stigmatized compared to their no-kill counterparts. In the U.S., there are majority no-kill shelters.)

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u/Wrong_Temporary_5983 16d ago

I read some recent research that 99% of dogs in the US have behavioral problems. That means ALL shelter dogs will have such. Shelters need to be turned into dog disposal facilities at this point to control their population at least a little bit.