A temporary care facility for lost, stray or unwanted animals. Commonly found creatures are cats and dogs, sometimes birds, rabbits, other pet rodents, ferrets and various reptiles.

Animals that are not either claimed by their owners or adopted in a certain ammount of time are usually killed.

Places that take care of stray or unwanted animals:

• usually full or even overcrowded due to the pet overpopulation problem (caused in part by irresponsible owners who fail to spay or neuter their pet)
• often run by a combination of county and donated funds
• divided into two categories: normal and no-kill shelters...No-kill shelters have a policy of not euthanizing animals. This results in them requiring more space, and/or having to turn even more animals away than a normal shelter
• often run, at least partially, by volunteers...these shelters have the best chance of weeding out the potential abusive adoption applicants: one who adopt without realizing how much work the pet will require, or worse yet, has evil motives, such as running an illegal dog-fighting operation
• happy places, because of so many wonderful animals...and sometimes because an owner finds their lost pet
• sad places, because of the hard reality of abandoned and unwanted animals