I saw an article on USA Today: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2012-02-27/euthanize-animal-shelters/53406232/1 that discusses the no-kill movement and the tradeoffs municipalities make when taking the no-kill approach. Namely, funding no kill shelters are very expensive and even communities who would like to become no-kill are having a difficult time given the stress on local budgets because of the economy.
We thought the article did a good job discussing some examples of communities who have tried this. The key variable that municipalities don’t factor in properly in my opinion is that with the proper exposure lots of donors are willing to help. The article points how how much private funding has been raised on a local level in different parts of the country, and we think if people understood how many animals were euthanized in their communities they would be willing to rally behind this cause.
The trend toward no-kill shelters might follow an S-Curve where we ultimately reach a tipping point that leads communities that still euthanize to look barbaric. We have been pleasantly surprised how much attention the issue is getting, and the population pushing for a no-kill nation is growing rapidly.