Find Pet Shelters (Cat, Dog and Puppy Adoption)

A pet shelter or animal shelter is a facility that provides short term housing for stray cats, kittens, dogs and puppies while an attempt is made to find the animals adoptive homes. Generally speaking, puppies and kittens are adopted more quickly than adult cats or dogs. Nevertheless, older animals can make terrific pets, and many pet shelters encourage visitors to consider older animals as well as the puppies and kittens.

From Wikipedia

An animal shelter is a facility that houses homeless, lost or abandoned animals; primarily a large variety of dogs and cats. The animal is kept at the shelter until it is either reclaimed by an owner, adopted to a new owner or placed with another organization. In the past, they were more commonly referred to as "dog pounds", a term which had its origins in the pounds of agricultural communities, where stray cattle would be penned up until claimed by their owners.

Some animal shelters humanely euthanize animals that are not adopted within a set period of time, others have a policy of only putting down animals that are in distress due to age or illness.