An AP-Petside reveals 7 out of 10 respondents would limit shelters from euthanizing healthy homeless pets and would allow this practice only in cases where the animals are too sick to be treated or too aggressive to be adopted.

I do have concerns for the dogs and cats turned away when the shelters reach capacity. We must understand the complexities of this topic. Until we have better regulations on entities such as puppy mills, kitten mills and greyhound racing, which by the nature of their operations produce homeless pets, we will continue to see homeless pets die.

The level of this problem varies by region of the country.

Yes – We need better programs to ensure the municipal shelters are using every means available to find homes for pets and we must attack the problem at the sources as well. People who refuse to spay and neuter their pets and then dump the puppies and kittens off local rescue groups and shelters must be held accountable.

I’m in full agreement with the 70 percent in this poll, but we can’t get there unless we face the problems from all aspects.

An article on Huffington Post includes some promising data on spay/neuter programs. — “” Before 1970, about 20 million animals were euthanized each year in this country. In 2011, fewer than 4 million abandoned animals were euthanized. “”

Four million is still a horrible number, but it shows reducing the birth rate through sterilization programs is a huge, key factor. No-Kill is the goal. We just have to get there – and getting there means using a comprehensive approach.