Kanab, UT (WVDN) — Best Friends Animal Society, a leading animal welfare organization, this week released its sixth annual pet lifesaving dataset, which gives a national overview of the number of dogs and cats that enter and exit shelters in a given year.
Best Friends measures shelter lifesaving with a metric called “save rate.” A 90% save rate is the nationally recognized benchmark to be considered “no-kill.” (The remaining 10 percent, or less, typically are humanely euthanized for severe, untreatable medical or behavioral issues, rather than killing for lack of space.)
In 2021, 46,457 dogs and cats entered West Virginia shelters and 39,919 were saved, giving the state an aggregate save rate of 86%. In the same year, 49% of state shelters measured above the 90% benchmark, an increase of 6.4% over 2020. Those that were below it needed to save 2,904 more healthy or treatable animals to make West Virginia no-kill (a state is considered to be no-kill when every brick-and-mortar shelter serving and/or located within the state has a save rate of 90% or higher). Based on 2021 data, 25 of West Virginia’s 51 shelters were no-kill.
By comparison, in 2020, 40,429 dogs and cats entered West Virginia shelters and 34,177 were saved, giving the state an aggregate save rate of 84.5%. At the time, an estimated 43% of state shelters measured above the 90% benchmark. Those that were below it needed to save an estimated 2,739 more healthy or treatable animals.
The save rate rose by 1.4% since 2020, despite an increase of 15% more dogs and cats entering West Virginia shelters in 2021, compared with 2020. The number of no-kill shelters in West Virginia increased by 6.4% and the number of no-kill counties increased by 9.1%. Around 165 more animals were saved in 2021 in West Virginia shelters, than in 2020.
Individuals can help support local lifesaving by choosing to adopt from a shelter or rescue group, spay or neuter their pets, foster, volunteer, donate, and support and advocate for community cats through trap-neuter-vaccinate-return (TNVR) and shelter-run TNVR programming.
The pet lifesaving dashboard, launched in 2019, is a groundbreaking tool that provides local communities, individuals and policy makers with critical data so that they can take collective responsibility for what happens to pets in their community, and better support their local shelters. View West Virginia’s state and local progress and learn how to get involved here.
Cats need help in West Virginia
The good news is that in West Virginia, 95% of the dogs that enter shelters are saved. Unfortunately, the state is struggling to save cats, and 97% of the animals killed in West Virginia shelters are cats and kittens. In 2021, 24,362 cats and kittens entered shelters, but in most cases, it’s actually best not to bring cats to shelters at all, unless they are sick or injured. Across the country, communities and shelters have realized that bringing healthy, free-roaming cats into shelters is not in their best interest.
Many well-meaning people assume the safest option for a friendly cat living outdoors is to be surrendered to a shelter or a rescue group. They think the cat will then be reunited with its owner or put up for adoption, but unfortunately that’s not always the case.
Nationally, return to owner rates for cats hover around two percent. Cats are intelligent and often understand their neighborhood layout. If they are left alone, they are likely to return home on their own. In fact, one study found that cats are seven-10 times more likely to be reunited with their owners when left in their neighborhood than when brought to a shelter.
Last year nearly 3,000 dogs and cats were killed in West Virginia’s animal shelters, and the vast majority of those were cats. Most are free-roaming, feral or strays, known as community cats.
With nearly 25,000 cats entering West Virginia shelters last year, and thousands of them never making it out alive, it’s time to rethink the traditional methods of sheltering and move toward a proven method that works: trap-neuter-vaccinate-return (TNVR). The concept itself is quite simple: stray and feral cats are caught, evaluated by veterinarians, vaccinated, spayed or neutered, and returned to their original outdoor homes, unable to have kittens.
TNVR ensures the cats’ health and welfare so they can live healthy, happy lives in managed colonies in their communities. Sterilization and vaccination provide a public health benefit to the community, too, a vast improvement over the failed trap-and-kill approach that’s been used for generations.
Best Friends Animal Society has partnered with animal shelters and other community stakeholders to run large-scale community cat programs for over a decade. These programs are animal-friendly, veterinarian-approved, cost-effective and successful. The improvement in overall cat lifesaving at partner shelters is 12 times greater than those without it.
In addition to community cat programs, communities continue to need increased access to low-cost medical pet care, spay/neuter, and pet support resources to help save the lives of pets in West Virginia.
The national outlook
The data showed that nationally for the first time in five years, U.S. shelter systems are seeing a setback in lifesaving. In 2021, the number of dogs and cats killed for reasons other than severe medical or behavioral issues that could not be rehabilitated in U.S. shelters increased from 347,000 to 355,000 and was especially stark when compared to the dramatic lifesaving efforts seen throughout the previous year. The reasons were partly due to staffing shortages that limited hours, decreased in-person volunteers, reduced adoption events and pet care support. As overall lifesaving stalls, Best Friends’ data shows the animal shelter crisis in America growing with increasing intakes and waning adoptions.
“The responsibility of saving pets’ lives should not rest solely on shelters and those in animal welfare, but on entire communities including community members, government leaders, shelters and other animal welfare groups,” said Julie Castle, CEO of Best Friends Animal Society. “Through collaboration and community involvement, this model provides better support for pet owners, efficiency in shelters, and more lifesaving outcomes for pets. When a community supports its shelter’s critical needs, we see dramatic results.”
For the past six years, Best Friends has spearheaded a one-of-a-kind extensive data collection process that involved coordinated outreach to every shelter in America followed by additional research, data analysis, and technology development. The dataset is the most comprehensive on U.S. sheltered animals, and is based on data collected directly from shelters, state and local coalitions, government websites, and FOIA requests. From this, 94% of the animal intake in U.S. shelters is known, 6% is estimated.
About Best Friends Animal Society
Best Friends Animal Society is the leading animal welfare organization working to end the killing of dogs and cats in America’s shelters by 2025. Founded in 1984, Best Friends is a pioneer in the no-kill movement and has helped reduce the number of animals killed in shelters from an estimated 17 million per year to around 355,000. Best Friends runs lifesaving programs across the country, as well as the nation’s largest no-kill animal sanctuary. Working collaboratively with a network of more than 3,700 animal welfare and shelter partners, and community members nationwide, Best Friends is working to Save Them All®. For more information, visit bestfriends.org.
