What is a true shelter?

The definition of the verb to shelter is "to take under one's protection".

The definition of the noun shelter is "place affording protection".

Synonyms are "retreat, asylum, sanctuary, shield, haven".

By definition a shelter cannot be a place that kills the sheltered, even if the sheltered are animals. Killing healthy or recoverable or rehabilitatable animals is not animal welfare - it is animal control and disposal, a public safety function of pounds.

Words matter:  As the public became less tolerant of 19th century attitudes to homeless animals the use of misleading words such as shelter, euthanasia, animal welfare, adoptions, etc, became endemic in the animal-disposal industry to disguise what it does.

ASPCA: Keys to a Great Shelter
in New York, Henry Bergh, founder of the ASPCA, urged the city to make humane reforms at the pound while steadfastly refusing to let the ASPCA run it. He believed that operating the city’s pound could conflict with the society’s role as an advocate for animals and place undue financial strain on the organization. Bergh’s foresight was remarkably accurate; more than a century later many humane organizations are divesting themselves from animal control responsibilities for some of the same reasons cited by Bergh in the 1800s.
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