What does a “No-Kill Shelter” really mean?

Swift Current SPCA is proud to call themselves a no-kill shelter, but what does that really mean? This means one simple thing: every single healthy and adoptable animal is able to stay with us until they are adopted, we do not do “convenience euthanasias” just to make space.  However if a shelter is a “no-kill” shelter, then they must unfortunately turn animals away sometimes. The animals typically turned away from “no-kill” rescues are animals that are too sick or injured to be treated or too dangerous to safely be rehabilitated and placed in a home.The downside to this choice is that it means there are times we have limited capacity to take in new pets; we are a small shelter and as much as we would like to be able to help every animal, sometimes we can’t  Does this mean there are sometimes difficult decisions to be made? Yes.But thanks to the generosity of our incredible community of supporters, these decisions must be made only in the most extreme of cases.  If you have more questions about our policies here at the shelter please do not hesitate to contact us.

Melissa Topham RVT

Operations Manager