People who leave their pets at shelters may think they’re doing the right thing. But here's a hard truth: in an average year in the U.S., about 10 million animals die in shelters. Once your pet is left at a kill shelter, it has around 72 hours to be adopted before it is destroyed. They are almost always at capacity, and there are many more animals being abandoned each day than there are homes that welcome pets in. Even the healthiest, most loving companion animals are susceptible to the harsh conditions at over-crowded shelters.

No-kill shelters are committed to never euthanizing healthy animals, or even animals with illnesses that are easily treatable. But this commitment to nursing animals back to health and caring for them for as long as it takes to find permanent homes requires lots of funding -- and lots of hard work by full-time staff and volunteers alike.