This National Mutt Day, Best Friends Animal Society Has Some Good News for America’s Dogs (and Kitties, too)

Best Friends Animal Society, a leading national animal welfare organization working to end the killing of dogs and cats in America’s shelters, just released new data from January – September* 2024 that shows shelters across the country are seeing a 3.4 percent decrease in the number of pets killed compared to the same nine-month period in 2023, and a 4 percent increase in pet adoptions from shelters.

According to Best Friends data, adoptions are on track to mark the first positive national trend in pet lifesaving since 2020, when pet acquisitions increased but adoptions from shelters stalled. Pet adoption is a critical factor in helping shelters to become no-kill. Currently two thirds of all U.S. shelters are considered no-kill, with only about 1,400 shelters remaining that haven’t achieved or maintained no-kill.  

This data is incredibly promising especially when looking back to 2016 when Best Friends declared they would take the country no-kill in 2025. Eight years ago, the animal welfare sector had no formal way of tracking how many shelters existed in the country. Since then, Best Friends developed the most comprehensive, accurate data for sheltered dogs and cats in the United States, which is collected from over 7,900 shelters and rescue groups

Best Friends’ goal is to make every shelter no-kill by the end of next year and to encourage more people to adopt versus purchase their pets in order to do so. This is incredibly timely as we near National Mutt Day (December 2), a day dedicated to raising awareness and promoting adoption for mixed breed dogs.

“While this turn-around is great news, and our data is clear we are moving in the right direction – shelters can only be no-kill and remain no-kill when people choose to adopt from a shelter or rescue group instead of purchasing their pets,” said Julie Castle, CEO, Best Friends Animal Society. “We have an amazing opportunity in this country to make every shelter across America no-kill next year because of the support from animal lovers nationwide.  On this National Mutt Day, you can make a difference for at-risk dog, or cat, by adopting from a local shelter or pet rescue group.”

Some key findings from Best Friends initial data from the 2024 calendar year include:

• A four percent increase for both dog and cat adoptions.
• The biggest increase for dog adoptions was seen in municipal agencies where dog adoptions are up almost 11 percent.
• Dog intake is still slightly higher than what was seen in 2023, and most of that increase for dogs is happening at the municipal shelter level. That means despite great improvements in dog adoption numbers, municipal shelters are still struggling with dog lifesaving.
• On a positive note, cats saw the biggest decrease in the number killed (down just over five percent when looking at the same period of 2023 to 2024).  

Castle continued, “Nine years ago, Best Friends put a stake in the ground to take the country no-kill by the end of 2025, and every year we see progress towards that goal. We have a huge opportunity in this country to solve a problem that most Americans care deeply about, and that is saving our best friends. Now, it’s on all of us to keep this positive momentum going and to help make no-kill a reality next year.”

To learn more about how to help save pets in your community by adopting, fostering and advocating, please visit bestfriends.org.

** Analysis based on a sample of 777 shelters that reported Jan-Sept 2023 and Jan-Sept 2024 monthly data (with 48% being municipal, 28% contract, and 24% private non-profits w/o contract).