South Texas shelter reaches no-kill with community cat program

Just three years ago, the save rate at Palm Valley Animal Society was 37.6% and nearly 30,000 animals passed through its doors. But all the people working there — staff and volunteers alike — are dedicated to reaching no-kill by 2025. And their lifesaving impact is one of the fastest growing in the country. In just over two years, Palm Valley Animal Society has reached a combined save rate of 89.5% for dogs and cats in the first quarter of 2020.

When it comes to cats, a huge factor in the increased save rate has been the community cat program. Introduced with the help of Best Friends Animal Society in July of 2019, the program has resulted in a huge increase in saving the lives of cats in the area. Cats are often brought in by well-meaning individuals who think they the cats are abandoned or by those who feel the strays are a nuisance. The community cat program works with the people in the community as much as it does the cats, solving those issues and helping people understand how important the work is.

Cats no longer have to wait in a stressful environment where they may not get adopted. Instead, they can return to the communities they know and caregivers who take care of them. Since the beginning of the year, the save rate for cats at Palm Valley Animal Society has been above 90%, far beyond the expectations set when the program began. And there’s no sign of things slowing down.

More about community cat programs

Photo by Sarah Ause Kichas