I have a friend who started an animal shelter.
Do they have a no kill policy? Except for sick animals of course.
I don't even think she kills sick ones.  Gets vet donations to help them.  She mostly has dogs and cats, but I think a couple mules too.
Well it would be inhumane to not kill sick animals that have no chance of recovery... Even in no-kill animal shelters they push for 90% recovery rate to be adopted out.
I will have to ask her, because I'm not really sure.  I do know she has lots of people to adopt animals from her.
The history of the "pound" is way back in the days when stray livestock would get out. They penned them until their owner came to claim them.
Back then, I bet everyone knew who the owner was, too.  Now, so many people have pets, and dump pets, it's harder to know.
Exactly. And they used to have a "pound master" who was a local gov official. They would come and feed the hogs, horses, sheep, etc... 
I wonder how they paid for the supplies back then.
I bet through taxes. Then animal shelters began and were run the same way for a while. One of the first "laws" was  the "Georgia Animal Protection Act" of 1986.