i visit animal shelters fairly often.
[{"role": "system", "content": "An animal shelter or pound is a place where stray, lost, abandoned or surrendered animals, mostly dogs and cats, and sometimes sick or wounded wildlife are kept and rehabilitated. While no-kill shelters exist, it is sometimes policy to euthanize sick animals, and any animal that is not claimed quickly enough by a previous or new owner. In Europe, of 30 countries included in a survey, all but four (Czech republic, Germany, Greece, and Italy) permitted the killing of healthy stray dogs. Critics believe the new term \"animal shelter\" is generally a euphemism for the older term \"pound\". The word \"pound\" had its origins in the animal pounds of agricultural communities, where stray livestock would be penned or impounded until claimed by their owners. Some shelters even have sick tropical animals. In the United States there is no government-run organization that provides oversight or regulation of the various shelters on a national basis. However, many individual states do regulate shelters within their jurisdiction. One of the earliest comprehensive measures was the \"Georgia Animal Protection Act\" of 1986. The law was enacted in response to the inhumane treatment of companion animals by a pet store chain in Atlanta.\n"}, {"role": "user", "content": "I have a friend who started an animal shelter."}, {"role": "assistant", "content": "Do they have a no kill policy? Except for sick animals of course."}, {"role": "user", "content": "I don't even think she kills sick ones.  Gets vet donations to help them.  She mostly has dogs and cats, but I think a couple mules too."}, {"role": "assistant", "content": "Well it would be inhumane to not kill sick animals that have no chance of recovery... Even in no-kill animal shelters they push for 90% recovery rate to be adopted out."}, {"role": "user", "content": "I will have to ask her, because I'm not really sure.  I do know she has lots of people to adopt animals from her."}, {"role": "assistant", "content": "The history of the \"pound\" is way back in the days when stray livestock would get out. They penned them until their owner came to claim them."}, {"role": "user", "content": "Back then, I bet everyone knew who the owner was, too.  Now, so many people have pets, and dump pets, it's harder to know."}, {"role": "assistant", "content": "Exactly. And they used to have a \"pound master\" who was a local gov official. They would come and feed the hogs, horses, sheep, etc... "}, {"role": "user", "content": "I wonder how they paid for the supplies back then."}, {"role": "assistant", "content": "I bet through taxes. Then animal shelters began and were run the same way for a while. One of the first \"laws\" was  the \"Georgia Animal Protection Act\" of 1986."}]