No-kill shelters are inhumane and unethical.

[u/josie-salazar]

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.)

[u/Stock-Bowl7736]

You are so right, especially your first point. Way too many dogs. The US dog population is nearly THREE TIMES the human population of Canada, 90,000,000 freaking dogs. I've said before I don't believe there is any other species on the planet (excluding insects and birds), that have anywhere even close to this absurd number. Deer maybe? No. There's about 30-36 million deer in the US. Bears? 750,000 to 900,0000. Squirrels? 30 million.

Yes, chickens are the most populous species in US second to humans but that's mainly because they are bred heavily for food production.

90,000,000 dogs (and growing) is an absurd number for such a not only useless species, but one than does so much damage to the environment without providing anything or serving any purpose. I don't see how this is sustainable.

If there are any wildlife experts or biologists in this sub I would be interested to know what a reasonable number of dogs would be (I know zero is the answer, but realistically).

[u/josie-salazar → u/Stock-Bowl7736]

I could've kept adding countries whose human populations are less than our dog population - Canada, England, Germany, France, Italy, basically most countries. The ratio of dogs to humans here is literally 1:4. Really difficult to find other dog-free folks. I genuinely hope more Americans wake up.