I'm going to tell y'all a little bit about real life in a no-kill animal shelter. I volunteer at one; my wife is one of 3 main operators.
Animals come in fast and go out slow. Last year we placed over 200 pets, and ended the year with more than we started with.

2. We are not absolutely no kill: we have dangerous dogs killed. But they have to be seriously dangerous, not just a little grumpy.
We have a whole big room dedicated to housing permanently unadoptable cats. Rinovirus and runny eyes.
We have a smaller room for FIV / FLV cats.

3. We keep dogs however long we have to, sometimes years. Pets die of old age and disease here, in spite of our best efforts and expense.
And we're in a hick town with fewer than 7,000 inhabitants.
It's harder than you can possibly imagine to work in there and not adopt strays.

4. We continually find new places to tuck cages and boxes so we can take *just one more.* We have over 100 animals under our care right now today. 3 women run it, a few children / teenagers help clean, I fix stuff when it breaks.

5. From time to time someone sentenced to public service comes and shovels shit for a while.
We drive all over the northwest quarter of Missouri scrounging up donated feed, cat litter, and supplies.
We run the washer and dryers about 16 to 24 hours a week.

6. Since we don't kill our residents, sometimes in spite of our best efforts we just have to refuse new animals. So, we don't kill them, but they die at somebody else's hands, or of exposure after dumping.

7. PetSmart in a nearby major city hosts adoptions. All the dogs and cats at PetSmart come from shelters in their region. Without them we couldn't do what we do. When you hear "adopt don't shop," remember that *at least* PetSmart and Petco shopping *is* adopting. Help them help.

8. People turn over pets because they lost their jobs, their marriages exploded, or for other reasons they had to move to some place that won't allow pets. People die, their pets come to us.
In spring we are always *deluged* with unwanted puppies and kittens. Mixed blessing.

9. Spring puppies and kittens are such a workload that they almost kill our tiny volunteer staff, but they don't cost us much - shots, neutering, a little food - and PetSmart gets them homes for us, pretty much 100%. We get the money. They're a lot of work but pay their own way.

10. PetSmart even makes donations to us based on the numbers of pets we place through them. We get *more than* 100% of the adoption fees.
Without exception, volunteers give, as well as their time, money directly to the project. We buy stuff and don't put in for reimbursement.

11. I can't begin to imagine how a shelter in a major population area could avoid the question of killing long term unwanted animals. It is the grim truth that a big, ill-mannered, unhousebroken, mixed breed mutt is damn hard to find a home for. And we get lots of them.

12. The less well an animal is socialized, schooled, and civilized, the more likely that animal is to wind up in a shelter by the age of two, and the less likely to be quickly adopted out. And every day we have one, the more money they cost us.

13. Puppies, kittens, and little dogs often go through so quickly that we don't lose money on them, but they are never able to fully cover the cost of the long term residents, the big dogs, sick dogs, shy and sick cats.
Without generous donations we'd be gone.

14. If any one of these three women dies or quits we'll be gone.
Two of them are Trump voters. We don't talk about it.
One of these women has a full-time job. One has a full-time and a part-time job. G is 70 and retired.
All work over 40 hours a week at the shelter apiece.

15. It's easy to blame the kill shelters, but they are living with a hard decision: give more animals at least some opportunity for adoption, or give fewer animals longer opportunity, more chance.
There is no hating person volunteering at a shelter, I don't believe.

16. The real problem is our sick, life-demeaning, brutal econo-social system.
We, here at home, have 3 adopted dogs and 3 adopted cats. Our next door neighbor (another Trumpdroid) has an adopted dog from our shelter.

17. I'm not saying kill shelters are a good thing, but I am strongly saying this: when you get up close and personal with the reality of homeless pets in America the answers aren't nearly as simple as they look from a distance.
That's all.