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Popular pet rescue advocate explains why she supports 'kill shelters' and it's eye-opening

She makes some excellent points.

Photo credit: Canva (left), Isabel Klee/TikTok used with permission (right)

Isabel Klee explains why "kill shelter" is a misnomer.

Isabel Klee has created a name for herself in the animal rescue world with daily videos documenting the heart wrenching and heartwarming transformations of the pets she rehabilitates. In early 2025, millions of people got sucked into the saga of Isabel's foster dog, Tiki, who came to Isabel completely traumatized and shut down. Under her care, Tiki slowly but surely learned to trust and began to thrive, and people loved seeing him become the brave, playful, loving, dog he was always meant to be.

Now Isabel has a message for her audience that might feel counterintuitive for animal lovers but is also something that can't be ignored. In a video captioned, "Just because you turn away from a problem doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist," Isabel surprisingly encourages people to "support your local 'kill shelter.'"

@simonsits

Just because you turn away from a problem doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist

She shares that a "no kill" rescue shelter that she has worked with before had posted something "extremely harmful." In a video against spay abort practices, the shelter said "overpopulation is a myth." Isabel describes "spay abort" as "the ethical procedure that a rescue organization does when they find a pregnant animal and choose to spay them…so that we aren't contributing to the already critical level of overpopulation happening in shelters around the country."

Isabel explained how overpopulation is very much not a myth and why she doesn't agree with the terms "kill" and "no kill" to describe shelters.

"I feel it creates an us vs. them narrative," she says. "I also think it's all about marketing, where the 'no kill' shelters are the heroes and the 'kill' shelters are absolutely horrible."

animal rescue, animal welfare, animal shelter, pet adoption, pet fostering 'Kill shelters' are really just open-intake shelters, which means they don't turn any animal away.Photo credit: Canva

"In reality," she continues, "kill shelters are open intake municipal shelters. This means they take in every single animal that comes to their door. They take in strays. They take in owner surrenders. They take in medical cases. They take behavioral cases. […] They are not able to say no, even when the dog has no place to go."

"No kill" shelters, she explains, are largely privately-owned shelters that are closed intake, meaning that they can pick and choose which animals they accept. They can turn animals away and control their population.

"Now, there's nothing wrong with that," Isabel says. "In fact, these privately-owned rescues and shelters are so important. But to villainize municipal shelters is just wrong. And for a 'no kill' shelter to say that overpopulation is a myth is frankly just insulting."

Isabel wants to be clear: "Just because you turn away from the problem doesn't mean it doesn't exist. It exists every single day, day in and day out."

animal shelter, cats, animal rescue, pet adoption, foster pets Animal shelters can easily become overpopulated.Photo credit: Canva

"I truly believe that the state of animal rescue is at a tipping point," she says. "And pitting people against each other who are all on the same side is not helpful. Shelters need rescues, rescues need shelters, everyone needs fosters, and the world needs proper, science-backed education."

People who have worked at both kinds of shelters are sharing their own experiences that corroborate what Isabel is saying:

"I’m a shelter director in the deep South & I can assure you we all dream of never having to euthanize but overpopulation is not a myth. We’re drowning."

"THIS THIS THIS TIMES A ZILLION. We are technically a 'no kill' shelter but all that means is that when we are full, we don't take more on...and guess where those animals have to go? If you care about the animals, support whichever shelter is local to you. We all need help."

"I started a nonprofit to support our local open intake, high volume shelter in Texas. The amount of hate that we get is wild when the shelter is really just dealing with a larger community problem."

stray dogs, animal shelter, animal rescue, pet adoption, foster dogs Stray animal overpopulation is a big problem in places all over the U.S.Photo credit: Canva

"As a former shelter worker, there is no such thing as a 'no kill' shelter anyways. only 'low kill' just because they don’t euthanize of space doesn’t mean they don’t euthanize."

"Spay aborts are one of the hardest decisions any rescue or shelter has to make. I’m on the board at our local animal rescue and we have previously done spay aborts and it’s always very hard for us."

"Thank you! I’ve worked at both and it’s exactly that. We had to take in every animal no matter what at the “kill” shelter whereas “no-kill” or rescues, we could just say no we’re full. And neither place takes euthanasia or saying no lightly. We want to help every animal but are given only bad choices because YES, WE ARE IN AN OVERPOPULATION CRISIS."

animal rescue, animal shelters, no kill shelter, pet adoption, foster pets Both "kill" and "no kill" shelters need support.Photo credit: Canva

"I got my beautiful baby from a kill shelter! They were about to euthanize him because of the insane amount of animals being brought in after Helene. The workers were so relieved when I got him, some even crying. They don’t want to euthanize."

The reality is that no one who cares about animals wants to euthanize them, but municipal shelters that don't turn away any animals have limits to their capacity. What's to be done when the limit is breached? What alternatives are there? Do those animals get tossed out onto the street to suffer, potentially becoming a danger to other animals and people? Is that really preferable to humane euthanasia of those unlikely to be adopted due to illness or behavioral problems when a shelter is already overpopulated and there aren't enough people to take them in? And how do we prevent overpopulation in the first place? These questions aren't easy, and people working in those shelters are the ones in the thick of it trying to figure out the best answers. Vilifying those folks is most certainly not the solution.

animal rescue, foster dog, pet adoption, animal shelter, animal welfare Animal rescues try to home as many animals as they can, but demand is greater than supply in many places.Photo credit: Canva

In addition to population control through spay and neuter efforts, what is really needed are more people to foster and adopt. If you are interested and able to care for an animal either temporarily or long-term, contact your local animal shelter or rescue. The more responsible humans we have to care for the animals in need of a home, the less we'll have to debate the terminology we use for overcrowded shelters and worry about the methods used to manage a currently unmanageable problem.

You can follow Isabel Klee on TikTok (@simonsits).

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Fall in love with these truffle-hunting rescue dogs.

Meet Jayson Mesman of Canberra, Australia.

All photos from Jayson Mesman/The Truffle Farm, used with permission.

In addition to looking eerily similar to Chris Pratt, Jayson also adopts rescue dogs and trains them to hunt for truffles.

GIF from "Parks & Recreation."

Before he happened upon this brilliantly adorable idea, Jayson worked as a trainer for law enforcement dogs. But he eventually fell in love with truffles (which, who can blame him?) and now runs the only truffle farm in the Australian Capital Territory.

Truffles are famously rare, famously difficult to cultivate, famously delicious, and above all, famously expensive. This year's harvest is expected to run between $2,000 and $3,000 per kilogram. 

The flavorful funguses are found in the soil around certain trees like hickory and oak and can only be detected by their smell. While pigs have a natural ability to sniff out the scrumptious scent of truffles, they also tend to eat them, which has led some farmers to train dogs for the task instead.

As a lifelong dog enthusiast, Jayson took this one step further: He recruited a legion of eager pups to help him in the truffle hunt — all adopted from nearby pounds.

"I actually go into the pound and look for the dogs that people quite often can't maintain," Jayson said. "Those with a really strong hunt drive, wanting to play constantly, the dog that chases the ball until he falls over almost."

"Owners are grabbing the cute, cuddly Labradors that everyone sees on the Kleenex ads," he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. "They don't realise they're a natural born retriever, so really high-powered ... and they don't realise that until their nice manicured backyard gets ripped to pieces."

Jayson went on to explain that he uses positive reinforcement to train the pups to hunt truffles, noting that technique "can get a dog to do basically anything you want them to do." He said he tries to rescue as many dogs as he can.

So how do you train a rescue dog to sniff out this sweet truffle goodness? The trick is figuring out what each one wants.

"These dogs don't consider it work; it's not a chore by any sense," Jayson said. "The key is making sure they're having a good time."

Most of his canine crew would respond to standard treats or praise, and Jayson only had to figure out the rewards they liked best. But for some of them, the process was a little more tricky.

Take Simba, for instance.

Jayson had exhausted his usual tricks of toys and food in trying to train Simba, and he was all out of ideas. But Simba finally found his first truffle, and right after, Mesman's partner, Danielle, gave the dog a hug.

This elite squad of truffle pups is rounded out by Willow...

...Nala...

...Samson...

...and Max, Jayson's personal kelpie that recently started joining in on the truffle hunt action.

"He's a dog that can run 80 to 100 kilometres per day," he said. "So we put all that energy to use, and it's something that he loves doing."

But this rowdy crew couldn't do what they do without Winnie and Piglet, the truffle pigs.

These two saddlebacks rely on their innately attuned noses to dig up any unformed or rotten truffles at the end of the season, which they eat up and poop out — spreading the spores back into the soil to make next year's harvest even more robust.

Thank you, Jayson, for making a difference in the lives of these wonderful animals. (And also for supplying people with tasty, tasty truffle treats.)

The next time you're in Australia, you can visit Jayson and his canine crew at The Truffle Farm Canberra. The internationally-renowned gourmet experience is just an added bonus. And yes — you can go hunting with the dogs, too.

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