From the CEO
THERE ARE MANY THINGS IN LIFE that we can’t control. And in many ways, the year that just ended has felt like a classic case in point. But there are also things that we can control, especially when we work together. And bringing an end to the killing of homeless pets in shelters is one of them.
For Best Friends, the next four years will be about putting our energy and resources into helping shelters reach the goal of making the country no-kill by 2025. I planted a stake in the ground for this audacious goal at our national conference in 2016. Some thought we were overreaching, but animals are dying and as the saying goes, “If not us, who? If not now, when?” We’re at roughly the halfway point between planting that stake and the end of 2025. So, this is a good moment to review where things stand and what the next major milestones are.
Our first step following that declaration was to collect data from as many U.S. shelters as possible. Before that dataset was created, no one knew how many shelters there were, let alone how many dogs and cats entered those shelters each year and what the life and death outcome numbers were. We needed to define the gap that had to be closed to get the country to no-kill, so that we could focus our resources accordingly. (You can view the results of our research in the pet lifesaving dashboard at bestfriends.org/2025.)
With that information, we developed a comprehensive plan to partner with shelters, local communities and people everywhere to save more lives faster. Having a no-kill goal, though, is not just about numbers and targets. Certainly, those are essential. But underlying it all is the understanding that the no-kill philosophy is fundamentally a way of living — one that’s rooted in the belief that every animal is an individual with a life worth saving and that we all have a duty to protect the life of every animal entrusted to our care.
How do we determine whether a shelter has reached no-kill status? The generally accepted view is that a shelter is designated no-kill when 90% of the dogs and cats admitted leave the shelter alive. The rationale for this is that the number of pets who are suffering from irremediable medical or behavioral issues that compromise their quality of life and prevent them from being rehomed typically does not make up more than 10% of all pets entering the shelter system.
Best Friends agrees with this view and that’s why, in building a plan for a no-kill country, we say that our target is a save rate of 90%. While that benchmark offers a meaningful, consistent way to gauge progress, it is neither a floor nor a ceiling. For many shelters, a true no-kill save rate may be 95% or higher. For some shelters (particularly those offering unique care such as compassionate end-of-life services), the benchmark may be slightly below 90%. The goal is for every shelter, no matter the type, to make a clear commitment to lifesaving and transparency while working with the community to achieve and sustain no-kill in philosophy and practice, rather than simply working to obtain a no-kill designation.
With all that in mind, here’s roughly where we are as we head into the final four years of our no-kill plan. Our 2016 nationwide dataset revealed that 1.5 million cats and dogs were killed in shelters that year. Right now, we’re projecting fewer than 500,000 shelter deaths for 2020. If that holds true, 2020 will be the best year on record. (In 2019, the number was about 625,000.)
This is a good moment to review where things stand and what the next major milestones are.
Reducing the number of animals killed in shelters by 58% in just four years is a testament to our determination to bring the country to no-kill by 2025, a comprehensive national strategy and the like-minded commitment of our 3,100-plus Best Friends Network partners. In addition to our transformative coalitions in Los Angeles and Utah (our home state), we’ve jumped feet-first into helping some of the most underresourced communities in the country, embedding Best Friends staff in shelters like Palm Valley Animal Society and Humane Society of Harlingen in Texas. These and other underserved shelters were left behind as the no-kill movement prompted change in much of the rest of the country. That is no longer the case because our commitment is to bring no-kill to every community and shelter in the nation.
For a number of years, Best Friends has advocated moving beyond the strictly shelter-centric system of animal services to a more community-based model. Our kitten care foster networks were a first phase of this shift. And some of the tremendous progress in 2020 was due to an unexpected silver lining in the dark cloud of COVID-19. You’ll recall that last March, during the lockdown period, adoption centers had to close, and shelters were reduced to admitting animals on an emergency-only basis. In response to the urgent need for thousands of new foster volunteers and adopters, people stepped forward in greater numbers than we’ve ever seen to save the animals. It was a remarkable moment, and it triggered a wider movement to expand community-based sheltering and sustain the gains of that silver lining.
The other critical key to our national no-kill goal relates to community cats — outdoor, free-roaming felines who are cared for by people in the neighborhoods where the cats live. For decades, community cats have been trapped and impounded into shelters in a failed attempt to control their numbers. Using this trap-andkill approach is not only ineffective at reducing outdoor cat populations, it imposes a terrible burden on shelter staff and volunteers, who are devoted to nurturing life, not ending it. And because shelters aren’t able to care for the large number of kittens being brought to them, cats now account for more than two of every three animals being killed in U.S. shelters.
Thankfully, this ineffective, expensive and inhumane approach to managing community cats has been discredited and is steadily being replaced with progressive programs. At the heart of these programs is the understanding that cats can be part of the community without having to be “owned” by anyone. They can be valued and cared for by multiple people. And the best way to provide for their good health and to ensure that their numbers don’t increase is to humanely trap them so they can be vaccinated and spayed or neutered, and then return them to their outdoor homes.
So, a major focus for Best Friends this year will be to work with communities, shelters and volunteers to reduce the number of feline births by implementing trap-neuter-return programs. Better yet, the latest data suggests that accomplishing this key aspect of the plan will lead to an overall national save rate of 90%. And that’s a huge step toward every single shelter in the country achieving that same success.
A final thought: When we reach our goal to achieve no-kill nationwide by 2025, the work of Best Friends will not be over. The great scientist Albert Einstein spoke of the need for “widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.” That is, for sure, an aspiration worthy of humankind. And here at Best Friends, our mission is to accomplish it with the animals who share our homes and are closest to us. For us, it’s the essential first step toward achieving the greater Best Friends vision: a better world through kindness to animals.
Best Friends has advocated moving beyond the strictly shelter-centric system of animal services to a more community-based model.