Photo: Two of the little critters saved by UPAWS in 2015.
Yesterday, I reported the progress we made in 2015 fighting animal cruelty. 2015 was also a banner year for saving lives, with animal shelters in cities and towns across America rejecting killing like never before. In Michigan, for example, there are new communities saving 95% or better of the animals and a fair number saving 97%, 98%, even 99%.
Likewise, Colorado reported saving 89% of dogs statewide and 82% of cats. The shining star of the Centennial State was Fremont County, where a new director brought lifesaving rates to 98% or better throughout the year.
Under new leadership, Austin, TX, already the largest city in the U.S. with save rates above 90%, reached new heights: running at 96% and as high as 98%.
Overall, roughly 1,000,000 people now live in communities saving between 98% and 99% of dogs and cats in their shelters. About 9,000,000 people live in communities saving between 90% and 99% of dogs and cats in their shelters. And over 40,000,000 people live in communities saving at least 80% of dogs and cats in their shelters.
What also makes 2015 so exciting is that it is not just about dogs and cats. When the San Francisco SPCA essentially launched the No Kill revolution in the 1990s, it focused exclusively on dogs and cats, leaving rabbits, hamsters, other companion animals, and wildlife to the mercy of the city pound which slaughtered them in large numbers (roughly half of them). San Francisco never achieved No Kill and given that the city was turning its back on companion mammals other than dogs and cats, reptiles, amphibians, birds, aquatic animals, “farmed” animals, and wildlife, it was not even close. It wasn’t until Tompkins County SPCA in Ithaca, NY, which ran animal control under contract, embraced No Kill that a community not only saved all non-irremediably suffering dogs and cats, but all species of shelter animals, including rats and rabbits, hamsters and gerbils, exotics and “farm” animals, becoming a true No Kill community.
In 2015, we saw a large number of other communities which likewise embraced the principles of No Kill for all species of animals entering their shelters. The Upper Peninsula Animal Welfare Shelter (UPAWS) which serves Marquette, Michigan, for example, is one of the shelters highlighted in Redemption, my documentary film about the No Kill revolution in America. It reported a 100% lifesaving rate for rabbits, 100% for guinea pigs, 98% for dogs, 98% for cats, and 94% for “pocket pets.” Meanwhile, Austin turbocharged the safety net beyond dogs and cats, frequently highlighting its effort to help displaced owls, donkeys, rabbits, and others.
Increasingly, no bunny is being left behind.
(P.S.: An exciting new website launched in 2015 that tracks save rates in U.S. shelters saving at least 90%. For those who want proof — just the stats and nothing else — demonstrating that many communities across the country are saving 95%, 99% and in a few cases 100% of the animals, including rabbits and others, we now have one: saving90.org)
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