A no-kill sanctuary is a sanctuary that does not kill its current inhabitants to make room for others. That is the definition of no-kill. Most municipal shelters are kill shelters and take in animals to make people like you feel better or to prevent dog packs and feral cat colonies in a society that frowns on them, and then after 5, 10 or whatever number of days is their policy, they kill that animal to make room for the next one you or someone else brings in.

 

A no-kill sanctuary says "I have these many dollars and I can buy this many pounds of food which will feed this many animals." If it exceeds that number it steps over the line and starts down the road to being a kill shelter because now it cannot feed them.  

If you truly want to save the life of that dog or cat you find along the road then you will have to do that yourself. Most of the sanctuaries and no kill shelters are full.. and until some animal dies of old age or disease  there will not be a place for it.

You can work hard at spay/neuter and animal advocacy or start a shelter of your own.  

To start a shelter of your own you need either to be born wealthy or get an excellent education to be able to get a high paying job to support it. There are no magic ways to get money, no money from the government or any of those things. You can beg 24 hours a day for donations and get none. You have to be prepared to work at your regular job the necessary 8 or more hours a day and come home and work another 5 to 8 taking care of these needy animals you picked up off the street before falling into bed exhausted. When you get old enough to retire you can take in additional animals, if your investments were sound and you saved every penny you made, and start working 16 or so hours a day taking care of them, cleaning up the vomit and diarrhea and cleaning the infected sores from dog bites and removing the maggots from the wounds on the cats hit by cars, empty the litter pans or shovel out the stalls, repair the fences, drive another sick one to the vet and wait for the call that says they couldn't save it, but did manage to run up a bill for $567 trying.. then you can dig a grave and bury it and let the grief of yet another loss rip through you.  And try to figure out how to pay that vet bill when the donations from concerned citizens and animal lovers suddenly get channeled to the newest disaster fund on the TV.

If you work hard, and overcome your own physical and emotional pain, suffer the losses without losing your mind and manage to keep everyone fed and cared for safely in your sanctuary day after day without respite, one day you can answer some ignorant childish email about how you are responsible for the deaths of the animals you didn't breed, never saw, but cried over because you couldn't take, knowing they had no hope.

Reprinted by permission - July, 2003