"I Chose a Child’s Face Over My Dog"
Jon Katz, author of A Good Dog, talks about aggression and the difficult choices faced by dog owners and shelters. More...

Support Your Local Euthanasia Technician
A recent study gathers stress-reduction ideas from those in the most difficult jobs. More...

What is a Good Death?
While communities across the country work to reduce euthanasia rates, some shelters struggle with a more fundamental issue: ending the use of the carbon monoxide chamber. More...

Take This Job and … Improve It
A recent study examines the effects of euthanasia and human resource practices on employee turnover in animal shelters. More...

They Fought for the Law—and They Won
New legislation in New Mexico addresses shelter standards and euthanasia licensing. More...

Constructing Personal Identity in Animal Shelters
Sociologist Arnold Arluke examines shelters’ euthanasia policies from an unusual perspective: How do they affect the way shelter workers define themselves? More...

Identity Complex
In the second of a two-part interview with sociologist and author Arnold Arluke, Associate Editor Carrie Allan elicits Arluke's observations on euthanasia-related dynamics in animal shelters. More...

Assessing Stress: Animal Workers and the Emotional Toll of Euthanasia
A recent study explores euthanasia-related stress, including the variables that enable certain people to remain in the field for years while others burn out quickly. More...

Signs of Progress
Pet overpopulation problem may be improving, according to this report from two Michigan State University researchers. More...

Taking the Public Inside
Former shelter workers harness the power of the personal to show the public the world behind the statistics of animal homelessness—and help them understand how they can change it.  More...

What Helps People Cope?
A new study investigates the ups and downs of euthanasia work in animal shelters. More...

Owners Requesting Euthanasia Usually Have History of Commitment
Study finds reasons for requests most often related to age and illness. More...

ShelterSpeak: Public Inquiries about Animal Disposition
How does your organization handle inquiries from the public about animal disposition? Do you reveal whether an animal has been adopted or euthanized? Why or why not? More...

Letting Go of Genie
The work, time, and love the San Diego Humane Society’s volunteers and trainers put into saving Genie—a pit bull with a sweet nature but a tendency to bite when overstimulated—made it all the more difficult to let her go. More...

A World Apart: Navigating the Road Between Dreams and Reality
Animal shelters are far from immune to the economic and cultural divides that plague U.S. society, and the roadmap for ending euthanasia of healthy, adoptable animals must reflect those differences. More...

What Would It Take?
In 2002, Animal Sheltering reported on the communities that are getting back on the high road, setting aside their differences in the name of progress toward a better world for homeless animals. More...

When Compassion Is in Crisis
A psychologist and a counselor pair up to offer a traveling workshop that addresses the phenomenon of compassion fatigue and burnout.  More...

What a Difference a Little Color Makes
With a few cans of paint and a lot of self-expression, a Michigan shelter transforms its euthanasia room.  More...

The Four Phases
A consultant and former shelter director explains the four phases of our emotional responses to sheltering work—and helps us understand how going through the phases makes us better activists and better people. More...

Euthanasia Decisions
Helping board members and volunteers understand the difficulty of making euthanasia decisions. More...

The Loneliest Victim
Many wonderful people open their homes to the victimized pets made famous by media reports, but close their hearts to the other animals in the shelter. More...

The Dilemma of Life and Death
Halfway across the globe, animal care and control professionals in the land of the Kiwis face the same daily realities as their colleagues in the States. More...

Euthanasia Training Video Series
An introduction to humane animal euthanasia by injection, how to prepare euthanasia, the different methods of administration, and coping with euthanasia-related stress are just some of the topics discussed in the six-tape series. The unit comes with one copy of The HSUS Euthanasia Training Manual and the manual on CD-ROM. More...

Shelter Pages 2008
Shelter Pages 2008 is full of valuable information. In addition to the product and service listings of more than 175 companies and organizations, we have included listings of major grant foundations, national animal-related organizations, state humane federations, animal-related websites, and more! More...

Compassion Fatigue in the Animal-Care Community
In this ground-breaking book, two prominent leaders in the field examine the causes of compassion fatigue and offer help to those who suffer from it. More...

The Humane Society of the United States Euthanasia Training Manual
This step-by-step guide describes to all of those responsible for euthanasia the procedures, policies, and techniques needed to perform this important task. More...

Instructions for Sharing Sodium Pentobarbital
If it is legal in your state, it is essential that you follow this protocol for sharing sodium pentobarbital during a shortage to be in compliance with Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) regulations.  More...

The HSUS Statement on Euthanasia Methods for Dogs and Cats
One of the most critical responsibilities of those in the animal care and sheltering field is to provide the most humane death possible for dogs and cats when euthanasia is necessary. To be humane, every euthanasia technique must result in painless unconsciousness, followed by respiratory, then cardiac arrest, and ultimately death. More...

North Carolina Accident Highlights Concerns About Carbon Monoxide Euthanasia
An electrical malfunction in an animal shelter's carbon monoxide gas euthanasia chamber further supports that euthanasia by injection, when properly performed, has been found to be the most humane, safest, least stressful, and most professional choice. More...

Direct Licensing Laws for Euthanasia in Animal Shelters
The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) continues to work at the legislative level to encourage all states to implement a law, often called “direct licensing,” that allows animal care and control agencies to have, hold, and administer controlled substances to provide for euthanasia of shelter animals when needed. More...

Virginia Shelters Making Carbon Monoxide Euthanasia a Thing of the Past
Surprisingly, more than half of the states in the United States still allow the use of carbon monoxide for the euthanasia of dogs and cats. Soon, however, there will be one less state. By the end of 2007, carbon monoxide will be completely eliminated as a form of euthanasia in Virginia animal shelters. More...

Appropriate Use of Carbon Monoxide for Animal Euthanasia
For those states where shelters cannot legally obtain, use, and administer sodium pentobarbital, The HSUS considers the use of CO a conditionally acceptable method of euthanasia for some animals when delivered by a commercially manufactured and properly equipped chamber. However, the many limitations of CO make the method less practical, considerably slower, and more expensive than lethal injection. More...