The No-Kill Myth

One of the first questions we are asked most often upon meeting people are "Are you no-kill?"

The answer to this for our rescue is not complicated. For NaNook & NaKoda's Big Paw Rescue we are no-kill. Every dog we pull from kill shelters will either be donated to a veteran if they have the right temperament for service work, adopted as a companion animal or live out the remainder of their lives as a sanctuary dog at our property. We will however euthanize for medical reasons such as the dogs illness or injury cannot be treated any longer and the animal is suffering. That is the only reason we euthanize. We have been lucky so far and have not had to euthanize for medical reasons but we do know that the day will come that we will have to make the decision to let a furbaby go.

For kill shelters though the answer is more complicated and there are facts that John Q and Sally Q Public do not know. The generally-accepted definition of "no-kill" in the animal shelter industry is: having a 90% or higher live release rate or save rate. This means that 90% or more of the animals who enter "no-kill" shelters, must leave alive. So if you know of a shelter that says their goal is to be "no-kill" by 2025 then all that means is they plan to only euthanize 10% of the animals that they take in.

However, it get's a little more complicated for kill shelters that are funded by local government or have contracts with local governments on top of their community donations. Shelters who have government contracts or are funded by local governments CANNOT close intake to the cities they are funded by or contracted with. This means they CANNOT refuse to take animals in from Animal Control offices or city officials and when intake CANNOT be shut down space becomes an issue so a shelter will never truly be no-kill when it comes to space. While some shelters put animals into foster homes, most are housed on site in kennels. When the kennels are full there will always be a need for them to euthanize for space or if an animal has been kept in confined kennel spaces or too long and starts to exhibit "kennel crazy" behaviors such as aggression or depression.

One way to help kill shelters euthanize less is to help no kill rescues grow so that they have more space and funds to take in more dogs. NaNook & NaKoda's Big Paw Rescue specializes in large/giant breed dogs. Large/giant breed dogs are the most commonly euthanized dogs in kill shelters because they require more space and resources to care for.

Many of you know that we have raised enough to get started on our building "The Dog House" to be able to save more dogs. Construction on the building shell started in August 2019 and we were able to complete the electrical work as well as insulate however, we still need to raise funds for septic and and to finish out the inside of the building to make it usable and livable for the dogs. Once this building is complete we will be able to pull more large/giant breed dogs from kill shelters and in turn help more veterans and families find the right dogs for them while finding furever home for many more furbabies!