“Pound seizure” is the practice by which animal shelters sell or release stray, lost, or abandoned dogs and cats to laboratories or to animal dealers who sell the animals to laboratories for use in experiments. The animals that are usually sold to the laboratories are the ones stolen from backyards, strays and the ones who are no longer productive for breeders. Pound seizure is illegal in Denmark, England, the Netherlands, and Sweden. However in the U.S., there is no federal law prohibiting pound seizure, but Washington, D.C., and 18 states have banned it. Most other states have no law prohibiting pound seizure, leaving it to the discretion of each animal shelter or to local government agencies.

A PETA undercover investigation in one such laboratory revealed that cats and dogs purchased from local animal shelters had holes drilled against their skulls, chemicals transmitted into their brains and medical devices implanted in their chests. If an animal shelter or pound is located in a state or county that has a pound-seizure requirement, it must relinquish animals who are not claimed or adopted to laboratories that ask for them. 

Indiana is one such state where the policies regarding Pound Seizure are not set in stone. They leave it to the individual Municipal corporations that do not take enough measures to make sure this law is implemented. Pound Seizure still happens on a daily basis all across Indianapolis and this should be put to a stop immediately.