The Meaning Behind Our Tagline
The Santa Cruz County Animal Shelter is an open admission—or open door—animal shelter. This means that we will not turn away any animal that comes to our doors.
Many animals are healthy, good-natured dogs, cats or rabbits who go up for adoption—and we place no time limits on how long they can stay up for adoption in the shelter. We also frequently provide alternatives to staying in the shelter for animals who require a different solution. We have a very active volunteer foster care program, and we also cooperate with other local and national organizations who help us place adoptable animals. There is, however, a much smaller number of animals that come to our shelter too sick, too severely injured, or too aggressive or behaviorally unsound to be adopted out into the community. In this case, we strongly believe that euthanasia is the most humane alternative to an existence of suffering and pain or being limited to life in a cage.
While open admission shelters like ours will give at least temporary refuge to all animals, many limited admission shelters—which sometimes call themselves “no-kill”—limit in various ways the animals that will receive admission. These decisions can be based on philosophies about the best allocation of their funds or, in some cases, a moral objection to euthanasia.
The Santa Cruz County Animal Shelter believes in helping the greatest number of animals with our available resources. It is not words or phrases that help animals but actual efforts, programs, and initiatives. Simply turning a back on these animals and merely pronouncing that euthanasia shouldn’t exist won’t make euthanasia go away: tirelessly working toward more animal adoptions, further pet pregnancy prevention, animal rehabilitation, and educating the public will reduce the necessity of animal euthanasia in our community.
