The dog pound is dead: Why pets can't wait any longer for us to build a new animal welfare system

The predecessor to the modern animal shelter, widely known as the dog pound, emerged in the United States in the early and mid 19th century as a means to rid cities of free-roaming dogs, control the spread of rabies, and police the relationship between animals and their human caregivers. These early pounds served primarily to round up and kill, en masse, the vast majority of captured animals. In New York City in 1877, for example, 758 dogs were drowned over the course of just 8 hours, in a part of the East River known as the "canine bath tub." Forty-eight dogs were drowned at a time: forced into a large crate then submerged in the river for 10 minutes. Only a select few, those with accompanying dog licenses or whose owners could bail them out — both, costly luxuries beyond the means of most Americans at the time — had their lives spared. As late as the mid-1980s, an estimated 17 million animals were still dying each year in government-run pounds through various means, including gas and lethal injection.?

Today's government-run animal shelters are, for the most part, more compassionate institutions, dedicated to pet adoptions, transfer to rescue partners, and returning lost pets to their owners. Of the 6.5 million cats and dogs entering U.S. shelters every year, approximately 5 million leave alive. In some shelters, animals are provided basic standards of care—including veterinary services, human interaction, regular food and water, and individual cages. In others, these standards of care are not guaranteed. In no animal shelter, is getting out alive an absolute right.?

Though they have improved, today’s government-funded animal shelters still stand firmly on the foundation they were built upon: rounding up, confining, and rehoming or ending the lives of a community's animals. Even now, most shelters, government-run, and privately-run, must permanently and completely remove pets from their homes and communities in order to help them.?There are even laws in some states that prevent or make it very difficult for shelters to treat owned pets who need medical care.

Just as it became apparent with the dog pound model, it has become clear that it is time to end animal shelters as we know them.

Ninety-eight percent of pet owners say pets are important members of their family, yet the "intake-based" sheltering model, still in operation today, separates people from their pets.?

The starkest example comes when someone has trouble caring for a pet. They may be struggling to pay for pet food or vet care, or perhaps they temporarily have no place to live. Despite the bond they may share with their pet, that person has two options when walking into the average animal shelter: permanently relinquish the pet to be considered for adoption or sign the pet over to be euthanized.

The harm to human caregivers is obvious. Pets are hurt as well: euthanized in or confined in stressful, loud environments where their mental and physical wellbeing often quickly deteriorate, putting them at risk of euthanasia.?

Sheltering animals is also expensive. Taxpayers are footing the bill for housing, feeding, and even euthanizing animals who should have never been in the shelter in the first place. In 2016, New York invested more than $18.5 million to build two new full-service shelters in Queens and the Bronx and to upgrade existing traditional shelters in Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Investing in an outmoded model of intake-based animal service leads to the needless separation of people and pets and wasted resources. Instead, we should radically reshape the role of animal services in cities across the country.

We need to first send the current intake-based system to the dump. Animal services should adopt the more humane and cost-effective Human Animal Support Services model — prioritizing supportive services that keep human-animal families together and pets out of shelters. Instead of removing loving cats and dogs from their homes, human animal support services can help families keep their pets by providing veterinary care, behavioral support, temporary foster homes for those in crisis, pet food, and supplies.

Second, we need to collectively address the housing and other resource issues that lead to animals entering shelters.?

Right now, our nation is facing a housing crisis the likes of which we have not known in our lifetimes. As millions of pets risk losing their homes, the end of the pandemic-era eviction moratorium highlights a broader, ongoing issue: the lack of pet-friendly housing that leads to animals entering shelter kennels. Across the country, cities are sorely lacking pet inclusive, affordable housing.?

A recent Pet Inclusive Housing Initiative Report found 76% of rental properties say their rentals are pet friendly but only 8% are free of costly pet fees or restrictive policies such as weight limits. Asking people to choose between safe housing and keeping their pet is not in line with the value pet owners put on the love between them and their pets.?

Finally, we must embrace and invest in tools that get lost pets home, without those pets entering the shelter system.?

Roughly half of the animals who enter shelters come in as “stray” — almost all of those; in fact, are lost family pets. Animal experts know that pets kept in the neighborhood where they are found are more likely to be reunited with their families; most of those pets are roaming less than a mile from their home. Thanks to new technologies and social media, lost pets no longer need to be brought to a shelter if they are healthy and friendly. With just a little help from the pet finder and support from animal service personnel, they can be returned home within minutes or hours of getting lost, costing shelters millions less in unnecessary shelter care.

There is still a role for physical animal shelters. Reimagined as physically smaller and located in multiple neighborhoods, shelters of the future will house only sick, orphaned or dangerous animals, and for a short time, those who truly have no place else to go.?

We are a nation of pet lovers, with close to 70% of Americans owning one or more pets. To this vast majority of Americans — pets are family members, not property. They deserve our attention and consideration.?

At this pivotal moment, when so many of us rely on the love and companionship of pets to get through the day, we must envision and rapidly realize a new system of human animal support services that better align with our collective values.?