I don't know if this is true elsewhere, but the difference in the shelters here is one is an animal control facility and the other is an adoption facility.

The Buffalo shelter is responsible for every animal in the city, including those that are involved in court cases like animal cruelty, dog fighting or dog biting cases. Since it is funded by the city most staffing is done only for maintenence (i.e. food, cleaning cages, rounding up stray dogs, etc) and there is no money for anything like obedience training, behaviour screening, education, etc. The people that work there do the absolute best they can given the funding they have and most are dedicated to the animals there. There is very little money for any kind of medical treatment. It is not the best atmosphere for the dogs and cats - but the fault lies in the city and not the people who run it. IMHO I am constantly writing the city government about the conditions there.

There is a couple of organizations that do everything they can by funding medical procedures, finding foster homes, finding rescue organizations for some of the dogs and that kind of thing.

The SPCA is more about adoptions and they seem to have more funding. They also seem to be better equipped with a medical facility, a training facility and adoption counseling. They also have "animal cops", but for some reason they do not seem to have as many stray animals as the city shelter, but they are located in a more affluent suburb.