Adopting from No-Kill Shelters vs. Kill Shelters

I am not planning on adding to my family anytime soon, but I was just wondering what other people's opinions are on this topic.  

Should you adopt from a no-kill shelter because you want to support their work, or should you adopt from a kill shelter because the animals there are more likely to be euthanized if they don't get adopted?  

That is such a tough question! I have acquired most of my pets while working with a local rescue as a foster and other roles and we were a no kill rescue.

That being said, my most recent adoptee... A dog, did come from a kill shelter and was on death row. I have watched this particular shelter (its staff) working so hard to get visibility for the animals that come to them but they are a small county run facility. They are where the surrounding towns send their animals marked for euthanasia

I felt great about adopting from them but I don't know if I would ALWAYS choose a kill shelter over no-kill. I think it is good to keep an open mind to visiting more than one shelter and being open to adopting from either.

P.S. While doing my "searching" I couldn't even visit the cats as the one time I did I couldn't stop crying. Whenever I'm in PetSmart I always visit the kitties, I still feel sad because I want them to be in homes and loved but I feel they have a better chance than the unfortunate souls that end up in our "pound" even the ones that are on the "adoption" side.

So, my answer is... I don't know as long as you adopt you make room for another to be saved.
I wasn't much help

I have adopted from kill shelter and donated to the No kill. Most of my cat I have, have been strays though.

I have adopted through both one time each. The rest of my babes have been strays or rescues. The kill and no kill shelter babes have tendencies that show where they've come from unfortunately

hexiesfriend said:

I have adopted from kill shelter and donated to the No kill. Most of my cat I have, have been strays though.

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That's exactly what I do.  I've adopted three cats from a kill shelter, and I donate often to the no-kill one.  

Both of my kitties were strays rather than adopted from a shelter.  I don't really know which I would adopt from but I probably would adopt from a kill shelter.  We have three excellent no kill shelters in the area, one of them is run by a TNR group.  The TNR group used to just have a network of foster homes and put their kitties in pet stores for adoption and on Petfinder.  They outgrew that arrangement and now have a physical shelter.  I think because they are very good I would be more likely to get a healthy cat or at least know what chronic issues they have.  I like the idea of saving a kitty from death row though.

We donate to both. But when it comes to adoptions, well, the cats seem to find us before we find them. They just appear outside and they eventually end up coming in the house. The only exception to that is Mollipop , who was born at our vet's hospital. We took BooBoo to the vet for a geriatric check-up, the receptionist asked me if I wanted to see some three-week old kittens and.....there she was. I brought her home when she was seven weeks old (she turned five years old back in February).

I see where you're coming from, but honestly? A life is a life. 

I've only adopted from a no-kill shelter.  One of the reasons is that when a space frees up in their shelter, they go pull from the kill shelters.  So it's win-win as far as I can tell.  I like this particular no-kill shelter because they truly are. Once an animal is in their program, they are in for life, and they treat them for whatever illnesses even if those illnesses or whatever reason means the animal is not adoptable.

 Back when I was growing up...just before the great dinosaur die-off...Dad always insisted that we adopt from kill shelters, and preferably from a high-kill shelter.  And we always visited death-row first.  The best and sweetest animals in my life came from those shelters. 

That said, I do donate to no-kill shelters.  Up until I moved to a new state, I used to go to thrift shops and snap up the blankets that came in that were too tattered to sell (a couple of places actually saved them for me).  They would be washed, cut into 24" squares, hemmed, and taken to various area shelters at Christmas time so that each animal had a little something soft in their lives.  I miss doing that.  Not having a car has really slowed things down.

Thanks for all the discussion so far you guys.  As for me, it makes sense for me to donate to the no-kill and adopt from the kill shelter like some of you mentioned.  None of my kitties were actually adopted though.  Two were strays and one was bought from a store (I know, I know, but my brother surprised me and he wasn't informed about adopt/ don't shop).  I am a bit wary of visiting a kill shelter though.  I've never been in one and I'm really scared of how depressing it would be.     I'll probably end up adopting all of them.  

On another note, I have volunteered for my local sort of no-kill humane society (they euthanize aggressive and terminally ill animals).  I thought it would be sad seeing the cats there, but the adoption rate is amazing.  I went in once a week and hardly EVER saw the same cat twice.  There are plenty of volunteers so the kitties are constantly being given attention.  They also accepted opened food donations, so I was able to donate the dry that came with Kyubi.