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Q. What's the difference between a Humane Society and a Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA)?
A. The terms are interchangeable. But every Humane Society or SPCA is autonomous and independent. There are no national umbrella organizations or local chapters. The American SPCA was the nation's first, but it has no satellite SPCAs. Neither does the Humane Society of the United States or the American Humane Association. Each SPCA or Humane Society has its own board of directors, its own mission, its own philosophy and its own individual programs and services.
Q. What is an animal control program and how does it differ from a Humane Society or SPCA?
A. An animal control program is a taxpayer-supported service provided by cities or counties for the purpose of providing for the overall community good as it relates to animals. Therefore, the emphasis of animal control is generally on public health and public safety, law enforcement, animal regulation, and licensing. Animal control agencies normally contend with dangerous dogs, pick up strays, arrest and prosecute animal cruelty cases, or respond to animal nuisance calls. Animal control agencies generally provide lost and found services and adoption programs for the stray animals they pick up and for the owner-surrendered animals who are brought in.
An animal control program can be a separate municipal agency or a service contracted out to a Humane Society or SPCA.
Humane Societies and SPCAs usually provide a variety of charitable services in addition to having an adoption program. These might include spay/neuter, humane education, foster care, dog training or animal assisted therapy programs. Many humane societies and SPCAs also investigate and prosecute cases of animal cruelty.
The lines between Humane Societies, SPCAs and animal control programs blur when there is not a separate animal control agency, and cities or counties contract with Humane Societies and SPCAs to perform animal control duties. In these instances, two somewhat different agendas are at work in the same agency: the interests of the community at large and the interests of the animal lovers supporting the nonprofit with charitable dollars.
As a result of these different configurations, income sources will vary. SPCAs and Humane Societies that contract with local governments will receive a portion of their funding from the taxpayer. Non-contracting SPCAs and Humane Societies will receive the majority of their funding from philanthropic sources, individual donors, bequests or grants.
Q. What is a rescue group?
A. Speaking in broad terms, rescue groups are usually small, all volunteer, no-kill, grassroots organizations. These groups are sometimes partial to a particular breed of dog or cat (a purebred rescue group) or to feral cats. Rescue groups generally do not have shelters but use a network of foster homes to house homeless animals until the cats or dogs can be permanently placed. Rescue groups rescue their animals from local animal shelters and also take owner-surrendered pets.
Q. Do national animal groups financially support local animal groups?
A. As a general rule, no. Again, there are no national umbrella organizations that "feed" donations to local chapters. If you give money to the ASPCA, the Humane Society of the United States, or the American Humane Association, your money will most likely not directly benefit the cats and dogs in your own community (One exception may be disaster relief programs that some national organizations sponsor).
Q. How do you define open-door shelter, traditional shelter, no-kill shelter and limited access shelter?
A. Open-door generally means the Humane Society, SPCA or animal control agency accepts every cat and dog that is brought to its doors, irrespective of age or condition. The animal could be a 17-year-old dog with mange, hip dysplasia and cancer; a vicious fighting dog; a litter of 8-week-old kittens; or a 2-year-old golden retriever. However, open door facilities are generally faced with space constraints and limited resources, and, as a result, euthanasia is used as a means of pet population control. A traditional shelter is generally an open door SPCA or Humane Society. A no-kill shelter (using Maddie's Fund's definition) is one that saves all the adoptable and treatable pets it takes in, with euthanasia reserved only for non-rehabilitatable animals. However, no-kill shelters are generally considered limited access and do not take in animals beyond their capacity to adopt or rehabilitate them.
It's important to know there are myriad variations within these categories. Some agencies claim to be open door but really aren't. Some claim to be no-kill but aren't. In each category, some organizations are exemplary and some are shameful. Your job, as the contributor, is to get beyond the label and find out for yourself which is which.
You also have to weigh and measure your own values against the organization's activities. A lot of organizations are following different paths to get to the common goal of saving lives. For example, some organizations are strictly working to save the animals within their own community. As all of the community's adoptable animals are saved and the organizations begin saving treatables, however, there is a higher cost per placement. This is because treatable cats and dogs have medical or behavior problems that require interventions prior to rehoming and this can be expensive. But more animals from within the community have an opportunity to be placed.
Another approach used by some organizations is to save animals from outside of the community that are easier to place. The purpose of this strategy is to save the greatest number of lives and reduce the lifesaving cost per animal.
Your job is to determine which organizations, approaches and philosophies you feel most comfortable supporting.
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