Putting Stray Animals Down: For/Against?

I admit being a dog enthusiast, but the stray overpopulation (especially in the inner city) is disgusting. When these animals are picked up, the only realistic thing to do is to put them down if they can't find a home for them after X amount of time. What's your opinion of the stray animals running the streets being picked up and put down?

I don't like the idea. When we got our dog he was one day away from being put down and if we hadn't gotten him when we had...it would've been a waste of a perfectly good dog to say the least. I'm for putting animals down only when they're sick and suffering. I know that some shelters pride themselves on being completely anti-euthenasia but their conditions for the animals were mortifying to say the very least.

I think that pet owners should be required to get their animals spayed or neutered. I support no kill shelters. I do believe some animals will have to be put down, but for all innocent animals I wish for a home for them and believe as humans it's our job to do our best to find homes for them before putting them down. It breaks my heart to go to the pound

thepossiblepolice wrote:I think that pet owners should be required to get their animals spayed or neutered. I support no kill shelters. I do believe some animals will have to be put down, but for all innocent animals I wish for a home for them and believe as humans it's our job to do our best to find homes for them before putting them down. It breaks my heart to go to the pound

thepossiblepolice wrote:I think that pet owners should be required to get their animals spayed or neutered. I support no kill shelters. I do believe some animals will have to be put down, but for all innocent animals I wish for a home for them and believe as humans it's our job to do our best to find homes for them before putting them down. It breaks my heart to go to the pound

On one hand I agree about the spay and neutering, but on the other hand wouldn't that just cause extinction if every pet owner had them fixed? I will say that I hate how pet owners (dog owners especially) just turn their dogs litters out on the street. My dog was a stray puppy who my neighbor found on the side of the highway one day while driving home from work. About 4 months old at the time, he and his brothers and sister were dangerously walking alongside the shoulder. My neighbor stopped and scooped them up and gave each of them away. My dog was the last one left.


Back to the question: Nope don't think stray animals should be put down. They usually don't look hard enough to find these guys homes. Just lock em in a cage until it becomes a zoo and decide then to kill them off for space. Not right.

I'm against it. I was watching something on the news just the other day about a program that brings "death row" dogs up to Canada and finds homes for them. I can't remember which shelter, or if it's more than one, but they've rescued dozens of dogs who were hours away from death. Most of those dogs have gone on to find wonderful homes and with the ones that haven't found homes yet, it's only because they're more recent additions. The guy they interviewed said he'd get calls from all over the US - compassionate shelter workers who couldn't bear to put an animal down for no reason other than lack of room. He or one of his staff go down and bring the dogs up to Canada and find homes for them.

I think it is a necessary reality. The concept that all shelters be non-kill is idealistic because there are people who don't care and will get puppies who are tiny and cute and they recycle them as soon as they are big and untrained due to neglect. More people should have their pets spayed or neutered, but it just isn't going to happen. Even if laws were passed dictating that one either had to be a licensed breeder or have her pets fixed, how would all of that be policed?

RedBedroom wrote:I think it is a necessary reality. The concept that all shelters be non-kill is idealistic because there are people who don't care and will get puppies who are tiny and cute and they recycle them as soon as they are big and untrained due to neglect. More people should have their pets spayed or neutered, but it just isn't going to happen. Even if laws were passed dictating that one either had to be a licensed breeder or have her pets fixed, how would all of that be policed?

I agree. Much of an animal lover as I am....some wild stray dog on roaming street doesn't have too many options after he's been caught. What are the supposed to do, let him grow to age old after he's been bred to be crazy? Put him down.