“Are you a ‘no-kill’ shelter?” Midcoast Humane employees are asked this question on a regular basis in a variety of contexts. We are asked this when we are adoption or admission counseling, out in the community attending events, or even when we go to Hannaford on our way home from work still wearing our Midcoast Humane shirts.

It feels like a simple, yes-or-no answer should suffice, but it is a complex and layered question that deserves a complex and layered answer.

The current champion of the no-kill movement is Best Friends Animal Society, which has the goal of bringing the entirety of the U.S. to a no-kill status by 2025. Per the Best Friends website, they define no-kill as “90% of the cats and dogs coming into the shelter must be saved.” They further state, “Typically, no more than 10% of dogs and cats entering shelters are suffering from irreparable medical or behavioral issues that compromise their quality of life and prevent them from being rehomed … ”

By this measure, Midcoast Humane fits the no-kill definition with a live-release rate of 95% in 2023. The same goes for the state as a whole. In 2022, the last year with data available on the state of Maine’s website, our state’s live-release rate, which is the number of live outcomes for animals entering shelters, was 94%.

So, why do we not use this label when we discuss our work? There are several reasons. First and foremost is that it can be confusing and misleading to those outside of the field; many shelters who qualify as no-kill by the above definition often do euthanize for medical and behavioral issues beyond their capacity to handle. Here at Midcoast Humane, we do not often need to euthanize for medical issues, but it does happen.

Last year, we were inundated with panleukopenia-positive kittens from several overcrowding situations. Panleukopenia is a highly contagious, life-threatening virus that is incredibly difficult and expensive to treat, with treatment not guaranteeing survival. Our staff worked incredibly hard, but when faced with a dying kitten who has had all the treatments possible and is declining, the humane decision is to end their suffering. Even when doing our absolute best, we do not always win.

We also feel strongly that we should not knowingly place behaviorally unsound pets into the community. We do not always know what will happen when a pet is settled and comfortable in a home; the environment in the shelter is very different than a home, each home is different and behaviors change for animals in different situations, just as they do for people. Our benchmark is asking ourselves if with what we know, do we want that pet living next door to us, to our pets, to our children; would that risk be acceptable to us, and if the answer is no, then we need to discuss placement options versus euthanasia.

The organizations that do not conduct any euthanasia for any reason are usually sanctuaries. We are not set up to be a sanctuary and we feel it is inhumane to put an animal in a kennel for years on end. If a pet is not safe enough to handle and rehome, warehousing them in a kennel for their entire lives, deprived of a home and socialization, is not a humane outcome. Very few organizations are set up to do that kind of sanctuary housing both safely and humanely. Those that are rarely have a spot open as the animals that live with them stay their entire lives.

Our goal as an adoption-focused organization is to help be a part of the solution to pet overpopulation. In the course of a 10-year lifespan, the number of other pets who could have gone through a space housing an unplaceable pet and been adopted is staggering. Hundreds is not an exaggeration.

Finally, we do not use the label no-kill or discuss our high live-release rate because it does not tell a complete story. Does knowing our live-release rate dropped from 97% to 95% from 2022 to 2023 cause you to change how you feel about the work that we do? If so, does knowing that our staff battled to save the lives of over 70 panleukopenia-affected kittens last year with double the national average of successful outcomes change your mind again? We are in an incredibly lucky position to even be able to fight those battles; less well-supported shelters with higher population pressures would not have the finances, time or space to do so. It is unjust to vilify overburdened shelters with a “kill shelter” moniker when, in fact, the entire community they work in is responsible for the pet overpopulation issues.

If you are trying to figure out if a shelter is philosophically aligned to help as many pets as possible, instead of asking if they are no-kill, a couple other questions you could ask would be: Do you have an adoption program? Do you have a foster care program? How do you handle sick pets in your care? What is your stance on spaying and neutering? Do you offer any low-cost public wellness assistance or training support? These questions will get far closer to the heart of the organization.