History Main / PoundsAreAnimalPrisons

Now while it is true that animal-control officers may impound problematic or aggressive animals when responding to an emergency call, and that not enough lost pets at animal shelters get reunited with their families, modern (RealLife) animal-control facilities and shelters are nowhere near the depraved standards that fiction likes to depict them with. Animal shelters know firsthand how deeply pets become family members and have a vested interest in providing their animals with a regular supply of food, shelter, health care, and companionship -- doubly so for "rescue" shelters that specialize in rehabilitating victims of neglect or abuse by previous human owners. Meanwhile, they do their best to get them adopted by loving new guardians or try to find the proper owners of lost animals, while leaving euthanasia as an absolute last resort (or, in the case of "no-kill" shelters, not using it at all).

[[folder:Film - Animation]]

[[folder: Film - Live Action]]

[[folder: Literature ]]

[[folder: Live-Action TV ]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheRenAndStimpyShow'', with the pilot episode "Big House Blues".
* The dog pound in the Creator/VanBeurenStudios cartoon "Dinnertime" Is presented like this. The animals end up quickly escaping once the guard [[CardboardPrison unwittingly opens the pound door]].
* The first ''WesternAnimation/{{Garfield|Specials}}'' animated special ''WesternAnimation/HereComesGarfield'' has him and Odie trapped and alone in such a pound. A bumbling Animal Control officer is a regular antagonist in ''WesternAnimation/TheGarfieldShow''.
* After being falsely accused of attacking Beebee Bluff (when he was just trying to rescue her from falling in thin ice), Porkchop of ''WesternAnimation/{{Doug}}'' is confiscated by the pound and sentenced to 'execution'. The entire matter is played out as if he's actually in a maximum security prison.
* On ''WesternAnimation/RockosModernLife'', Rocko gets [[IAmNotWeasel mistaken for a dog]] and is put in the pound after going to retrieve Spunky from there. Appalled by the deplorable conditions, he decides to run for city dog catcher. He loses, but the city simultaneously votes for a more liberal animal control policy, and the role of dogcatcher (won by Mr. Bighead) is reduced to "glorified pooper scooper".
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Pound Puppies|1980s}}'':
** [[WesternAnimation/PoundPuppies1980s The pilot]] had the dogs run a secret adoption network from the pound, a la ''Series/HogansHeroes''. Naturally, comparing the pound to a Nazi stalag didn't suit the networks, so for the series proper, it became a benevolent animal shelter. The evil Katrina Stoneheart wants nothing more than to see all canines rounded up, but Holly knows better and helps the resident canines see every lost dog given to a better home.
** Its second season, ''The All-New Pound Puppies Show'', returned to the original themes with the pound being run strictly by Katrina instead of Holly.
** Shelter 17 from [[WesternAnimation/PoundPuppies2010 the new series]] on Creator/TheHub is largely an aversion since the only reason dogs have to rely on the Pound Puppies to get adopted is that the manager, head dog-catcher Leonard [=McLeish=], is more interested in impressing people and getting promoted than actually doing his job. This is played straight with the Canine Capture and Removal Center in "I Never Barked For My Father" (which [=McLeish=]'s sidekick Olaf even remarks "looks like a doggy prison"), and with Shelter 17 [[TyrantTakesTheHelm under the reign of Milton Feltwaddle]] in "[=McLeish=] Unleashed".
* Since Brian on ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' is more human-like than dog, when he winds up in the Pound, this happens. Along with a violent cellmate.

* Some WesternAnimation/ClassicDisneyShorts focusing mainly on WesternAnimation/{{Pluto|ThePup}} will often have dog pounds being portrayed as prisons.

* [=PBS's=] ''WesternAnimation/MarthaSpeaks'' dropped her in a pound once that was portrayed like this. Subverted, however, after she helps the other dogs escape: they all go back willingly, because they have nowhere to go, and the dogcatcher is doing the best he can to feed them and find them homes.
* Reversed in the ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' episode "Cat Scratch Fever", when Batman catches up to a couple of mooks who were involved in Roland Daggett's scheme to [[PoisonAndCureGambit infect animals with a new strain of rabies so he could sell the antitoxin]].
-->'''Batman:''' It's off to the pound for you!
* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/EekTheCat'' has an episode where Eek and Sharky are thrown into the pound. They even [[InstitutionalApparel wear striped jail clothes]] and their cages are like traditional jail cells. They also smash rocks in the yard.
* In "Dog's Best Friend" from ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'', Pal imagines Amigo in a pound that is essentially an animal prison.
-->'''Amigo''': All we eat are vegetables and there are baths three times a day. I don't know how much more I can take. I'm innocent, Pal.
-->'''Nemo''': Time's up, liver lips. Move along or it's [[ConeOfShame the cone]] for you.

* Inverted in ''WesternAnimation/DogCity'', where Doggy Prison is the Pound, with a warden who's a pastiche of dog-trainer Barbara Woodhouse (while still being herself a FunnyAnimal dog).
* The Pet Buster's cage room of his home from ''WesternAnimation/PuppyInMyPocketAdventuresInPocketville'' seen from Ava and the other animals' points of view looks a lot like a prison. Especially all the shelved cages, which resemble jail cells with those vertical bars.
* Used in ''WesternAnimation/SheepInTheBigCity'' in the episode "Wish You Were Shear", which begins with Sheep mistaken for a dog and sent to a pound that resembles a prison. He's even held in a cell with bars before Lisa Rental adopts him as a pet.
* The zoo variation is played with in "Zooing Time" from ''WesternAnimation/TheAngryBeavers''. Norbert gets sent to a zoo after being framed for a crime Daggett committed, basically treated as being arrested and incarcerated, but then he sees that the zoo is actually in fact a luxurious resort for animals (more like modern zoos in real life). Unfortunately, a guilt-ridden Dag is under the impression that the zoo is an actual prison and tries to break his brother out, ultimately destroying paradise.
* An inverted example occurs in the ''WesternAnimation/DennisTheMenace'' episode, "Gone to the Dogs". In it, Dennis, Joey, and Ruff use a magical booth to travel to a dimension where dogs act like humans. In this dimension, Ruff gains the abilities to stand upright and speak English. Unfortunately for Dennis and Joey, the dogs in this dimension hate humans and have them imprisoned in pounds. It's up to Ruff to break Dennis and Joey out so they can return to their home dimension.
* ''WesternAnimation/OneHundredAndOneDalmatiansTheSeries'': The pound that Cadpig gets sent to in "Cadpig Behind Bars" is situated on an island and actually does have cages with bars, a security card system to raise & lower the drawbridge, and a prison yard.

* ''WesternAnimation/PoundPuppies'':

* ''{{Series/Wishbone}}'': In one episode, Wishbone is placed in the pound after having been found without his collar. He initially views the pound as a prison, preventing him from returning home, but then he falls in love with a female dog there. At this point, his owner shows up and provides an UnwantedRescue.

* The first ''WesternAnimation/{{Garfield|Specials}}'' animated special ''Here Comes Garfield'' has him and Odie trapped and alone in such a pound. A bumbling Animal Control officer is a regular antagonist in ''WesternAnimation/TheGarfieldShow''.

* The first ''WesternAnimation/{{Garfield}}'' animated special ''Here Comes Garfield'' has him and Odie trapped and alone in such a pound. A bumbling Animal Control officer is a regular antagonist in ''WesternAnimation/TheGarfieldShow''.

* The Pet Buster's mill from ''WesternAnimation/PuppyInMyPocketAdventuresInPocketville'' seen from Ava and the other animals' points of view looks a lot like a prison. Especially all the shelved cages, which resemble jail cells with those vertical bars.

%% Trope was declared Administrivia/NoRealLifeExamplesPlease via crowner by the Real Life Maintenance thread: [crowner link] [=%%https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13350380440A15238800&page=558#comment-13929=]

[[folder: Real Life]]
* A good chunk of animal shelters' bad reputation is because they originally were little more than places to house strays before killing them. Back when stray dogs were rampant and they were a public health hazard, shelters focused more on killing the dogs than rehousing them. It wasn't until well into the 20th century that most shelters changed their priorities.
* This trope might explain a particularly annoying phenomenon on Website/YouTube, in which videos from veterinary clinics, animal shelters, zoos, and wildlife rehabilitation centers get ''plagued'' with angry accusations of animal abuse. In the case of zoos and wildlife rehab centers, there will also be demands to set free whatever animals are seen in the video, lamenting how sad it is to see them "trapped in a cage." The people who write these comments often care very little for an animal's circumstances, preferring to view ''any'' human interaction with animals as inherently cruel.
* In America, part of the reason behind this trope is that there is a difference between a pound, shelter, and rescue, but they all tend to be used as synonyms. Pounds are municipal shelters and often euthanize pets within a certain period because of limited budget. Shelters may be private or public, having a physical building to house animals, while rescues usually place animals with foster families, although some rescues eventually fundraise to build a shelter without changing their names. Not all government pounds are bad, and not all private rescues are good, although people tend to make that assumption and are more willing to donate to private rescues than to pay taxes to support city pounds so that they can improve.
* That said, one should watch out for places calling themselves "shelters" or "care centers" that are actually high-kill facilities, and places that advertise themselves as no-kill that actually do kill pets.[[note]]Creator/KeithOlbermann is constantly promoting cat and dog adoptions and rescue services on his Twitter and signal-boosting alerts for lost pets. One of his deepest emotional crusades is the listing of "at risk" dogs (on his [[https://twitter.com/TomJumboGrumbo Tom Jumbo-Grumbo]] account) at the New York Animal Care Centers which have a very bad reputation for killing completely healthy, adoptable dogs and cats for little or no good reason. "You can pledge on any tweet and if the dog is rescued you will be tagged within two weeks with payment info for rescue. If he's killed you won't be contacted. Pledges go towards vetting/medical/training or anything else that's needed to help the dog." [[/note]] Just as bad are shelters that cling to their "no-kill" title so tightly that they refuse to euthanize sick pets who are suffering horribly despite their vet's pleas, or shelters that only keep their "low-kill" or "no-kill" stats by shipping unadoptable pets to other facilities who don't have the same policy and either removing them from their stats or listing them under "re-homed".
[[/folder]]

One trope that's sure to rub animal-shelter volunteers the wrong way is the frequently antagonistic portrayal of animal shelters in fiction.

Now while it is true that animal-control officers may impound problematic or aggressive animals when responding to an emergency call, and that not enough lost pets at animal shelters get reunited with their families, modern (RealLife) animal-control facilities and shelters are nowhere near the depraved standards that fiction likes to depict them with. Animal shelters know firsthand how deeply pets become family members, and have a vested interest in providing their animals with a regular supply of food, shelter, health care, and companionship -- doubly so for "rescue" shelters who specialize in rehabilitating victims of neglect or abuse by previous human owners. Meanwhile, they do their best to get them adopted by loving new guardians or try to find the proper owners of lost animals, while leaving euthanasia as an absolute last resort (or, in the case of "no-kill" shelters, not using it at all).

* There's some people in the WesternAnimation/PAWPatrol fandom who [[PlayingWithATrope play with this trope]]. The pound is treated as a prison...because it ''is'' one, specifically for canine and animal criminals, often of the juvenile delinquent variety. Animal shelters on the other hand are treated as basically canine orphanages and as such, can vary from OrphanageOfFear, OrphanageOfLove and somewhere in between. And any stories that feature this idea make a ''strong'' distinction between pounds and animal shelters; the latter may be bad but that has nothing to do with being an animal shelter and everything to do with OrphansOrdeal.

* ''WesternAnimation/LadyAndTheTramp''. "What's a girl like you doing in a place like this?" Lady herself has a license and is quickly returned to her owners, while Tramp is caught by the dog-catchers (but later adopted by Lady's family as well). Interestingly, the dogcatchers aren't really demonized or set up as villains; they're just [[PunchClockVillain people doing their jobs]]. Though the dogs are shown to be absolutely miserable, as they try to dig out and escape. Mostly, it's the nasty Aunt Sarah that tells the dogcatcher to kill the Tramp.

* Played with in ''WesternAnimation/SpiritStallionOfTheCimarron''. The wild horses see stables as a prison, or like them being taken for slaves. The tame horses in the movie are usually treated fairly reasonably for the most part, though it depends on their humans.
* ''WesternAnimation/FindingNemo'' did this with a fish tank. Only from the point of view of the fish, though. The dentist really just wants to have some nice pets, and takes good care of them. The small children ARE bad for the fish, but only because they don't know how to treat them well.

* In ''Film/DrDolittle'', after almost running over the dog Lucky (not yet given the name at the time) and hearing him talk, Dr. Dolittle decides to rescue him. He goes to the animal shelter and asks where the stray dogs are. He encounters an animal-prison like environment, complete with barred cells and despondent dogs, including one who shouts "Dead dog walking!" upon seeing Lucky being led inside.

* Parodied in the children's book ''Dear Mrs. [=LaRue=]: Letters from Obedience School'', by Mark Teague. A dog who pulls on his owners leash too much gets sent to obedience school. He writes letters to her about how much of a prison it was, when in reality it was a luxury. He made it seem like he ran away from it too, while he actually was just released and everyone ''in town'' was overjoyed to see him when he came back.

* ''Series/EerieIndiana'': An early episode involved a dog pound, and a boy whose dental bracers could detect (and translate) the dogs' language. It was implied that an ominous room at the end of the hall was where they put dogs to sleep, and the dogs were organizing some kind of rebellion.

* ''Series/TheHoneymooners'' had Ralph finding a stray dog and eventually taking it to the pound. However, upon learning that the dog would be "destroyed" if it is unadopted for too long, Ralph not only insists on taking the dog home, but a pack of others who are almost out of time themselves.

* ''ComicStrip/DogsOfCKennel'' by Mick and and Mason Mastroianni is pretty much this.

* Played for laughs in ''[[VideoGame/{{Octodad}} Octodad: World's Dadliest Catch]].'' Octodad thinks aquariums are festering prisons of iniquity, and the one that his wife is writing a paper on really does have lax standards--which makes his trip there all the more nerve-wrecking.

* On ''WesternAnimation/RockosModernLife'', Rocko gets [[IAmNotWeasel mistaken for a dog]] and is put on the pound. Appalled by the deplorable conditions, he decides to run for city dog catcher. He loses, but the city simultaneously votes in a more liberal animal control policy, and the role of dogcatcher (won by Mr. Bighead) is reduced to "glorified pooper scooper".

** [[WesternAnimation/PoundPuppies1980s The pilot]] had the dogs run a secret adoption network from the pound, a la ''Series/HogansHeroes''. Naturally, comparing the pound to a Nazi stalag didn't suit the networks, so for the series proper it became a benevolent animal shelter. The evil Katrina Stoneheart wants nothing more than to see all canines rounded up, but Holly knows better, and helps the resident canines see every lost dog given to a better home.

** Shelter 17 from [[WesternAnimation/PoundPuppies2010 the new series]] on Creator/TheHub is largely an aversion, since the only reason dogs have to rely on the Pound Puppies to get adopted is because the manager, head dog-catcher Leonard [=McLeish=], is more interested in impressing people and getting promoted than actually doing his job. This is played straight with the Canine Capture and Removal Center in "I Never Barked For My Father" (which [=McLeish=]'s sidekick Olaf even remarks "looks like a doggy prison"), and with Shelter 17 [[TyrantTakesTheHelm under the reign of Milton Feltwaddle]] in "[=McLeish=] Unleashed".
* Since Brian on ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' is more human-like than dog, when he winds up in the Pound, this happens. Along with a violent cell mate.

* ''WesternAnimation/RoadRovers'' first shows Hunter and Muzzle in a pound. The structure of the building is prison-like, but the two pound workers seen are kind to the dogs, with Hunter clearly expecting to play and getting his ears scratched. Though Hunter and Muzzle are scheduled for euthanasia, it's because Hunter is at the end of the six-week waiting period for that pound (a sad measure some shelters have to take because often there is just not enough space). For Muzzle, one of the workers mentions 'finally getting word to put the crazy [dog] down', indicating there was some sort of evaluation process. [[note]]Muzzle shows himself to be ''extremely'' dangerous on the Road Rovers' missions, with it being implied he ''eats'' some of Parvo's mutants. His first assignment, he takes on a whole room of of Zachary Storm's armed mercenaries--and wins.[[/note]]

* The Pet Buster's mill from ''WesternAnimation/PuppyInMyPocketAdventuresInPocketville'' seen from Ava and the other animals' points of view look a lot like a prison. Especially all the shelved cages, which resemble jail cells with those vertical bars.

* This trope might explain a particularly annoying phenomenon on Website/YouTube, in which videos from veterinary clinics, animal shelters, zoos and wildlife rehabilitation centers get ''plagued'' with angry accusations of animal abuse. In the case of zoos and wildlife rehab centers, there will also be demands to set free whatever animals are seen in the video, lamenting how sad it is to see them "trapped in a cage." The people who write these comments often care very little for an animal's circumstances, preferring to view ''any'' human interaction with animals as inherently cruel.
* In America, part of the reason behind this trope is because there is a difference between a pound, shelter, and rescue, but they all tend to be used as synonyms. Pounds are municipal shelters and often euthanize pets within a certain period because of limited budget. Shelters are may be private or public, having a physical building to house animals, while rescues usually place animals with foster families, although some rescues eventually fundraise to build a shelter without changing their names. Not all government pounds are bad, and not all private rescues are good, although people tend to make that assumption and are more willing to donate to private rescues than to pay taxes to support city pounds so that they can improve.
* That said, one should watch out for places calling themselves "shelters" or "care centers" that are actually high-kill facilities, and places that advertise themselves as no-kill that actually do kill pets.[[note]]Creator/KeithOlbermann is constantly promoting cat and dog adoptions and rescue services on his Twitter and signal boosting alerts for lost pets. One of his deepest emotional crusades is the listing of "at risk" dogs (on his [[https://twitter.com/TomJumboGrumbo Tom Jumbo-Grumbo]] account) at the New York Animal Care Centers which have a very bad reputation for killing completely healthy, adoptable dogs and cats for little or no good reason. "You can pledge on any tweet and if the dog is rescued you will be tagged within two weeks with payment info for rescue. If he's killed you won't be contacted. Pledges go towards vetting/medical/training or anything else that's needed to help the dog." [[/note]] Just as bad are shelters that cling to their "no-kill" title so tightly that they refuse to euthanize sick pets who are suffering horribly despite their vet's pleas, or shelters that only keep their "low-kill" or "no-kill" stats by shipping unadoptable pets to other facilities who don't have the same policy and either removing them from their stats or listing them under "re-homed".

* That said, one should watch out for places calling themselves "shelters" or "care centers" that are actually high-kill facilities, and places that advertise themselves as no-kill that actually do kill pets.[[note]]Creator/KeithOlbermann is constantly promoting cat and dog adoptions and rescue services on his Twitter and signal boosting alerts for lost pets. One of his deepest emotional crusades is the listing of "at risk" dogs (on his [[https://twitter.com/TomJumboGrumbo Tom Jumbo-Grumbo]] account) at the New York Animal Care Centers which have a very bad reputation for killing completely healthy, adoptable dogs and cats for little or no good reason. "You can pledge on any tweet and if the dog is rescued you will be tagged within two weeks with payment info for rescue. If he's killed you won't be contacted. Pledges go towards vetting/medical/training or anything else that's needed to help the dog." [[/note]] Just as bad are shelters that cling to their "no-kill" title so tightly that they refuse to euthanize sick pets who are suffering horribly, or shelters that only keep their "low-kill" or "no-kill" stats by shipping unadoptable pets to other facilities who don't have the same policy and either removing them from their stats or listing them under "re-homed".

* That said, one should watch out for places calling themselves "shelters" or "care centers" that are actually high-kill facilities, and places that advertise themselves as no-kill that actually do kill pets.[[note]]Creator/KeithOlbermann is constantly promoting cat and dog adoptions and rescue services on his Twitter and signal boosting alerts for lost pets. One of his deepest emotional crusades is the listing of "at risk" dogs (on his [[https://twitter.com/TomJumboGrumbo Tom Jumbo-Grumbo]] account) at the New York Animal Care Centers which have a very bad reputation for killing completely healthy, adoptable dogs and cats for little or no good reason. "You can pledge on any tweet and if the dog is rescued you will be tagged within two weeks with payment info for rescue. If he's killed you won't be contacted. Pledges go towards vetting/medical/training or anything else that's needed to help the dog." [[/note]]

* In America, part of the reason behind this trope is because there is a difference between a pound, shelter, and rescue, but they all tend to be used as synonyms. Pounds are municipal shelters and often euthanize pets within a certain period. Shelters are usually government owned, while rescue are usually private and run off of donations. Rescues foster out their dogs instead of kenneling them, they have higher fees, and rarely euthanize pets.

Fortunately becoming a DiscreditedTrope with animal welfare groups (not the AnimalWrongsGroup) making the plight of abandoned and abused animals more well-known, though it may have originated from the ForgottenTrope of the DiabolicalDogcatcher (especially in areas where pet ownership required an official license and not everyone could afford such).

Fortunately becoming a DiscreditedTrope with animal welfare groups (not the AnimalWrongsGroup) making the plight of abandoned and abused animals more well-known, though it may have originated from the ForgottenTrope of the Diabolical Dogcatcher (especially in areas where pet ownership required an official license and not everyone could afford such).

[[folder: Fanworks]]

* In 1935, ''Life Returns'' starred real-life Dr. Robert Cornish, a self-promoting researcher into artificial resuscitation. In the film, a boy's dog is nabbed by the dogcatcher and ''immediately'' put down, forcing the heartbroken boy to plead for Cornish to use his (real-life) experimental techniques to bring his beloved pet back to life.

Probably related to the [[PlayingWithSyringes Sadistic Science Lab]] and [[TheyWouldCutYouUp the fear of winding up there]], and the OrphanageOfFear.

* A good chunk of animal shelters' bad reputation in America is because they originally were little more than places to house strays before killing them. Back when stray dogs were rampant and they were a public health hazard, shelters focused more on killing the dogs than rehousing them. It wasn't until well into the 20th century that most American shelters changed their priorities.

* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/MuppetBabies'' has a part where Baby Rowlf thinks that this trope applies to zoos since they reminded him of dog pounds. Nanny goes on to explain what zoos are all about, and how important they are to the protection of animal life.

* The zoo variation is played with in "Zooing Time" from ''WesternAnimation/TheAngryBeavers''. Norbert gets sent to a zoo after being framed for a crime Daggett committed, which is treated as being arrested, but then he sees that the zoo is actually in fact a luxurious resort for animals (more like modern zoos in real life). Unfortunately, a guilt-ridden Dag is under the impression that the zoo is an actual prison and tries to break his brother out, ultimately destroying it.