With rising populations in the pet communities, it is nearly impossible that these animals will all have good homes. When a pet becomes lost, or homeless and abandoned, animal shelters and animal sanctuaries both look to different ways of solving this issue.
Animal shelters are facilities that take in stray pets. Their goal in doing this is to keep pets off the street. Homeless pets are looked at as a public health concern. For this reason, an animal shelter will take in these pets and attempt to find them a good home. Animals that are taken in will be given a temperament test to determine which ones would be good for adoption. The ones who are deemed not good candidates for adoptions are put to sleep. The ones who are deemed good for adoption will attempt to find a new home. They are given a certain amount of time to find a new home. Once this time limit is exceeded, the animal will be put to sleep. With rising numbers of animals in need of homes, and shelter populations continuously rising, some of these animals will only be given mere days to find a new home.
Animal sanctuaries are similar to an animal shelter in the sense that they will take these stray animals off of the street. However, an animal sanctuary will not attempt to find these pets new homes. Adoptions do still occur; they are just not the primary goal. Instead, they will be taken to a facility to be cared for and protected while living out their lives in full, until dying of natural causes. Animal sanctuaries are non-profit organizations that put the lives and well being of these animal inhabitants above all else. With the animals well being and lives being the primary concern, animal sanctuaries hope to raise awareness to the general public and change the way people treat these animals.
Many people debate about whether an animal shelter is humane. Animal sanctuaries provide an alternative to this unrelenting issue. Animal populations are rising for whatever causes, many will find themselves without good home. The major difference is the regard to which these animals are treated. Shelters will find homes for those whom they can, but to do so they also have to make room for new additions. Animal sanctuaries will simply give all these animals the life and care that they are entitled to.