Don't breed your dog or cat, and don't buy from an unreputable, high-volume breeder. Get an ID tag for your pet. Unidentified dogs and cats are rarely reunited with their owners - and thus likely to be put to death in a shelter. These dogs didn't do anything. If anybody deserves to be on death row, it's their owners.
Regulations vary from county to county.
Cobb County figures are representative of the rate of animals put down. Last year, the Cobb Animal Control impounded 13,553 cats and dogs. Van Camp and Lavelle begin at Veterinary Medical Center in Alpharetta, checking in on the 30 dogs they board there. All the dogs are in various stages of recovery from former lives they'd probably like to forget. Another was a starving St. Bernard, at 44 pounds when it was rescued, one-third its healthy weight.