What happens to strays?

Cianos

Hi,
What happens to animals that are found or brought in to shelters? How long do they keep them for? Would every animal be kept for the natural duration of its life, or are they put down after a certain period if no-one adopts them?

peasant

If not claimed within 5 days, they can and will be killed. The fuller the pound, the quicker the kill.

Pounds are always full !

Our man in Havana

as peasant said strays get 5 days - surrenders can be PTS straight away! Animals should be taken to rescues rather than the pound they will get more chance in a rescue - over 28,000 dogs were PTS last year no idea how many cats. Tis a scary place for animals!

(PTS put to sleep)

pwd

Most rescues will only put downa dog if it gets fatally ill. Unfortunately kennels get quite crowded with stray dogs, so disease is rife dispite their best efforts, so about half of them will be put down anyway. Disease is more severe in pounds generally, so even if an animal is claimed within the short period it is aloowed life there, it may be dying anyway.

Sigma Force

Pounds are different from shelters/rescues.

Pound dogs as already said get 24 hours..well if lucky they get 24 hours if handed in by the owner or 'surrendered'. Stray dogs are kept for 5 days and then pts if now reclaimed, rehomed from the pound or a rescue takes them out.

There are people working very hard to take as many pound dogs as they can out of the pound and have them transported to shelters this goes on all the time.

Pounds will not let out a dog to anyone they know to be ill or have disease.

While it's true that there are breakouts of Parvo or other diseases in rescues at times, the same can be said for areas of a town or village etc where there are many dogs living near each other.
Rescues keep their dogs housing clean with bleach or disinfectant to kill parvo and other nasty viruses.
Any decent rescue will not rehome a dog if the dog is ill or appears to be ill.
The rescues I know of hold onto dogs until they can find them a home no matter how long it takes..can take months or sometimes longer, sometimes just a few weeks.

The animals we take in are sometimes sent to foster homes (same with dog and cat rescues), or are kept here until they can be found a home.
We have just rehomed a pair of gerbils that have been here well over a year.
4 of our guinea pigs have been here since last summer, and we will hold onto them until they can be found a home no matter how long it takes.
The only problem we have and more than likely other rescues can have is that if we do have long termers there can be a limit to how many new animals can be taken in.

If someone phones a rescue and they say they are full but a dog really needs to be rehomed, rather than put the animal to sleep or hand to the pound try and work with the rescue, they might be able to help rehome if you give them pictures and details of the animals health and temprament etc.
Many rescues have contacts and people on their list looking for a particular type of dog eg one that might be small and good with children or one that is active and likes long walks etc etc.

HTH