page_title: Animal shelter
hierarchical_section_title: Animal shelter
caption_attribution_description: English: Animal Rescue
context_page_description: An animal shelter or pound is a place where stray, lost, abandoned or surrendered animals — mostly dogs and cats — are housed. The word "pound" has its origins in the animal pounds of agricultural communities, where stray livestock would be penned or impounded until they were claimed by their owners.
  While no-kill shelters exist, it is sometimes policy to euthanize animals that are not claimed quickly enough by a previous or new owner. In Europe, of the 30 countries included in a survey, all but five permitted the killing of healthy stray dogs.
context_section_description: An animal shelter or pound is a place where stray, lost, abandoned or surrendered animals — mostly dogs and cats — are housed. The word "pound" has its origins in the animal pounds of agricultural communities, where stray livestock would be penned or impounded until they were claimed by their owners.
  While no-kill shelters exist, it is sometimes policy to euthanize animals that are not claimed quickly enough by a previous or new owner. In Europe, of the 30 countries included in a survey, all but five (Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Greece and Italy) permitted the killing of healthy stray dogs.
caption: A cat at an animal shelter
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