A humane society is a group that aims to stop animal and human suffering due to cruelty or other reasons.

Examples include: American Humane which was founded in 1877 as a network of local organizations to prevent cruelty to children and animals. The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) which was founded in 1954 and The American Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA.)

Many local humane societies were founded earlier, and are independent of these similarly named organizations. Therefore local humane groups called SPCA or Humane Society are "not" related to the national groups such as The HSUS or ASPCA.

National organizations primarily work on big picture approach including research, public education and assisting local shelters and rescue groups. Local groups primarily handle the actual care (housing, adoption, and euthanasia)of animals, but their programs may also include education and outreach to the public.

There are municipal and private run shelters. Not all local groups euthanize. Municipal shelters "must" accept all animals given up by the public, but private shelters are not required to do so, unless they are contracted with their municipality.

Some shelters refer to themselves as "no kill." However this does not necessarily mean that the problem of unwanted animals has been resolved in their community. Unless the "whole" community can claim that enough new good homes can be found for all the animals that are taken to shelters, "no kill" is a business choice of that particular shelter, as other shelters will likely pick up the rest of the unwanted animals in that community.

There are well run no kill shelters and there are well run "traditional" shelters, just as there are badly run no kill and traditional shelters also.

To find listings of humane organizations and rescue groups in the United States, you can visit www.pets911.com and search by zip code.

See also

• animal cruelty

External links

• Humane Society of the United States
• American Humane
• American Partnership for Pets
• Prevent a Litter Coalition (PaLC) Inc.
• Pets 911 national directory searchable by zip code