Nearly Half of Shelters in Texas Achieved No-Kill in 2025

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Kerry McKeel / KerryM@bestfriends.org / 757-761-9412

AUSTIN, TX (April 15, 2026) — New data from Best Friends Animal Society, a leading national animal welfare organization whose goal is to end the killing of dogs and cats in America’s shelters and make the country no-kill*, shows that while Texas remains the number one state for killing healthy, treatable pets in the United States, the state saw nearly an 11 % decrease in dogs and cats killed in shelters last year. However, 78,800 more need to be saved to achieve no-kill.

Notably, nearly every major Texas city’s municipal shelter saw an improvement in lifesaving in 2025 compared to 2024—except Houston: Fort Worth Animal Care and Control saw a nearly 1,500 decrease in unnecessary deaths of healthy and treatable pets, El Paso Animal Services saw a nearly 1,000 decrease, San Antonio Animal Care Services saw a nearly 900 decrease, and Dallas Animal Services saw about a 100 decrease. In contrast, BARC Animal Shelter and Adoptions in Houston killed nearly 400 more pets in 2025 than in 2024.

The improvements experienced by most major cities across Texas reflect a broader trend that shelters are implementing proven strategies to save more pets’ lives—such as return-to-home programming, reducing barriers to adoption, creating rehome plans for healthy and treatable pets from the moment they enter the shelter, and placing greater emphasis on both foster programs and adoption events.

Additional findings from Best Friends’ 2025 Texas data include:

• 194 of 391 shelters achieved no-kill and 82 shelters have less than 100 additional pets to save to reach no-kill.
• 77% of the pets in Texas shelters were saved 
• An additional 32,000 cats and 46,600 dogs need to be adopted to reach no-kill
   

“These numbers show that real progress is happening,” said Sophia Proler, regional director, South Central, Best Friends Animal Society. “Communities across Texas are demonstrating that when shelters implement proven, lifesaving strategies, more healthy and treatable pets can move out of shelters and into loving homes.”

In 2025, Best Friends Animal Society invested $5.6 million in proven lifesaving programming across Texas, working collaboratively with local shelters to help them achieve or maintain no‑kill by closing the remaining gap of pets left to save.

Best Friends’ data also shows that if one in every 150 additional households chose adoption, Texas would become no-kill.  Texans can make a difference by choosing to adopt their next pet instead of purchasing from a pet store or breeder, by fostering dogs and cats in shelters, supporting community cat programs, and advocating for pet lifesaving policies.

This progress in Texas reflects the larger national movement to save the lives of pets in shelters and underscores the impact communities can have when they get involved. Best Friends latest data indicates that the national save rate for pets in shelters in 2025 was 82.5%. The percent of shelters that are no-kill is now at an all-time high of 68%.

“Best Friends has been working to make the country no-kill and while Texas remains the top state for unnecessary killing it is encouraging to see incremental progress being made to help save every healthy and treatable dog and cat,” said Julie Castle, CEO, Best Friends Animal Society.  “Nationally, more than two out of three shelters are already no-kill, putting a future with no homeless pets within reach. We urge people to positively impact the lives of dogs and cats in their community by adopting, fostering, advocating, and volunteering with local shelters and rescue groups.”

Best Friends’ annual report on national shelter data includes all of the nearly 4,000 shelters in the country. More than 80% of shelters in this report have collected and current data (12 consecutive months in the last 24 months), with the small remainder being estimated from historical and community data using a method approved by two independent peer reviews. Check out the organization’s latest data HERE.

*No-kill is defined by a 90% save rate for animals entering a shelter and is a meaningful and common-sense benchmark for measuring lifesaving progress. Typically, the number of pets who are suffering from irreparable medical or behavioral issues that compromise their quality of life and prevent them from being rehomed is not more than 10% of all dogs and cats entering shelters. For any community to be no-kill, all stakeholders in that community must work together to achieve and sustain that common goal while prioritizing community safety and good quality of life for pets as guiding no-kill principles. This means cooperation among animal shelters, animal rescue groups, government agencies, community members and other stakeholders, all committed to best practices and protocols.

Best Friends Animal Society is a leading animal welfare organization dedicated to saving the lives of dogs and cats in America's shelters and making the entire country no-kill. Founded in 1984, Best Friends runs lifesaving facilities and programs nationwide in partnership with more than 6,000 shelters and rescue organizations. From our headquarters in Kanab, Utah, we also operate the nation's largest no-kill animal sanctuary — a destination that brings our mission to life for thousands of visitors each year. We maintain the most comprehensive animal sheltering data in the country and make it accessible to the public — empowering communities with critical insights into the needs of their local shelters and how they can help. We believe every dog and cat deserves a home. And we believe that, by working together, we can Save Them All®.

Our goal at Best Friends is to support all animal shelters in the U.S. in reaching no-kill. No-kill means saving every dog and cat in a shelter who can be saved, accounting for community safety and good quality of life for pets. 

Shelter staff can’t do it alone. Saving animals in shelters is everyone’s responsibility, and it takes support and participation from the community. No-kill is possible when we work together thoughtfully, honestly, and collaboratively.