In the 1960's and 70's most shelters were more warehouses, euthanizing animals, not like today where new homes are sought for strays and mistreated pets. Animals would spend two to three weeks in a shelter, if no home was found the animal would then be put down. This is a sad fact, but we have learned from it, and moved forward. Shelter employees of that time did not have the time or budget to become acquainted with these pets, or market them to potential homes, and rarely knew anything about the animals in their care.
Today at private or nonprofit shelters, prospective adopters are expected to fill out lengthy applications and are often subjected to a home inspection. Although many argued that the lengthy process prevented dogs from being mistreated or abandoned again, other suggested that it was a road block in finding a good permanent home. This is still an area of debate among many shelters and advocates, and has lead to the recasting of their application policies to be more educational and less adverseal.
