The Humane Society is not no-kill by honest standards. No-kill animal welfare makes sure that doge go to stable, responsible persons so that the agency's dogs aren't killed by another agency or pound. No-kill assures this by rehabilitating needful dogs until problematic behaviours are corrected; by choosing only those stable, responsible persons (that is why AAS does not adopt to anyone too young to have a history of stability); by doing home checks; and by doing follow-up several times in the first year for dogs that have been abused and may act out in day-to-day situations that have not arisen in a kennel environment.

No-kill determines the behaviours that need correcting by assessing the dog in several different situations, not by a uniformed stranger confronting a frightened, intimidated dog in a confined space like a kennel. Assessing, according to the most credible authorities, is best performed by someone the dog is familiar with. That person need not have taken assessor training, but only have enough years of working with dogs to sympathetically understand dog-behaviour, someone who works with an agency with the goal of saving and protecting dogs, not the goal of failing as many dogs as possible to save the money and time that these abused dogs need and deserve.