Animal shelters embrace no-kill philosophy

It isn’t easy to challenge systems that have prevailed for decades, but animal shelters across the country are doing just that. Two out of three shelters have made philosophical and programmatic changes to serve pets rather than kill them, and today they are lifesaving resources for pets and people in their communities. They’re determined not to fall back to the old ways. Marc Peralta, Best Friends chief program officer, says, “No-kill is really about saying that we shouldn’t be killing animals for lack of space, period.”

That’s the philosophy behind shelters that have remained no-kill even in the face of housing and veterinary care shortages, rising costs, and so many other factors that can end up being life-threatening to dogs and cats. “There are now so many examples of success that no one has to reinvent the wheel to stop killing pets in any shelter,” Marc says. The information is there for shelter staff, public service decision-makers, and the public. It centers on three things that every shelter should do: implement community cat programs, offer services as an alternative to surrendering pets to the shelter, and make adoptions easy and accessible for all.

Marc says, “These three types of programs should be standard in every community, and people should expect them and push for them at their local shelter because they work.” The first two lower the number of pets coming into shelters, and the last one ensures that more pets go into new homes. “The key is that shelters need to truly do the work to change, and change can be hard,” Marc says. “But the alternative is to keep letting shelters fill up with pets who could have had other options and then killing them. It’s not OK.”

But what, exactly, should be done differently? How have shelters successfully reorganized their priorities so that their programs work for the long haul, even in cities handling thousands of dogs and cats each year? We talked to leaders at three shelters out of many across the country that have embraced those core programs. Here, they share how they’ve maintained no-kill, even when the going gets tough.

It used to be that Miami-Dade County Animal Services in Florida was inundated with more cats and kittens than they knew what to do with. Cats are crafty survivors and can thrive and reproduce outdoors, especially in places that stay warm year-round. And that means cats and kittens. A lot of cats and kittens, with many of them entering the nearest shelter when well-meaning people scoop them up.

Even though the Miami-Dade shelter had reached no-kill, it was a struggle to handle the number of cats coming in. “When I started here five years ago, we had cats everywhere all the time. We put cats at Petco for adoption, and every single space was always full,” says Annette Jose, director of Miami-Dade County Animal Services. “We were always looking for ways to find adopters for cats.” Back then, cats were the main focus because they had to be. Annette says, “So, we thought, let’s do everything we can to control the number of cats, do it in a healthy way, and keep the cats’ welfare as the priority.”

They poured resources into spaying and neutering cats. People could have their cats fixed at the shelter, and a robust trap-neuter-vaccinate-return (TNVR) program was started. In the TNVR program, free-roaming cats are humanely trapped, brought in for spay or neuter surgery and vaccines, and then returned to the place where they were living. “Obviously, it’s all free,” Annette says. TNVR is a standard program that many shelters have, but at Miami-Dade, with thousands of cats coming into the shelter each year, staff needed to find ways to get to as many cats as they could. They looked for ways to get more people involved, and that’s how the Community Action Targeted Trapping Initiative (CATTI) program was born.

Through the CATTI program, trained volunteers trap cats and bring them in to be spayed or neutered and vaccinated, and then they return the cats to their neighborhoods after surgery. Those trained volunteers can get a $15 stipend, paid to them by the city, for every cat they bring in. Even that wasn’t quite good enough. Annette says, “We realized that there were still some barriers to people getting cats in for surgeries because a lot of trappers are doing this after they get off work, and they needed us to provide more flexibility in our hours.” So they repurposed a safe space where trappers can drop off cats even when the shelter is closed.

It all adds up to Miami-Dade providing spay or neuter surgeries to more than 30,000 cats per year, Annette says. It has made a world of difference, without cats and kittens flooding into the shelter every day. Annette says, “We joke here that we actually need cats now. We’re even asking people to please bring us kittens for people to adopt.” It’s a beautiful problem to have. And not only does it mean that cats in Miami are no longer at risk if they enter the shelter, it frees up staff time to focus on the pets who still need support, and that’s a lifesaver, too.

Pima Animal Care Center (PACC) in Tucson, Arizona, has come a long way. Like most municipal shelters, PACC previously had no official adoption, foster, or rescue group program, so they started those as ways to help pets get out of the shelter. They also started a pet support program to keep pets with their families and, with help from Best Friends, launched a community cat program. PACC’s director of animal services, Monica Dangler, says, “Putting those basic pieces in place helped us start saving about 85% of the pets who come here, and with some fine-tuning, we got to a 90% save rate fairly easily.” Saving at least 90% of the animals is the benchmark for no-kill, and they had reached that goal.

But then, as happens in life, other challenges arose, and PACC had to adapt its good, solid programs even further to meet the ever-changing needs of the community and also to uphold the goal not to kill pets as a solution to the shelter filling up. With the support of its nonprofit partner Friends of PACC, they created a fund called Keeping Families Together because, as Monica says, “We’ve become the default for people who can’t find veterinary care or afford it.” The program funds veterinary care so that people don’t have to surrender their pets to the shelter to get that care. As the need grows, so has the fund. Monica says, “It grew from us spending $50,000 a year on it to $200,000 a year.”

[Changes to rescue, adoption practices save more animals]

PACC also revamped what happens when people bring in stray animals they’ve found. Monica says those kind people are usually willing to take some extra steps to help. She explains, “Now we ask people: Can we vaccinate and microchip the dog, and you hold onto it until you find the owner? Or can you hold onto the pet for a few days? Can you post on your social networks that you found this pet and that you brought it to PACC?” PACC’s data shows that those actions help lost pets get home sooner, ideally without having to stay at the shelter at all.

In addition, PACC freely provides support and coaching to community members who are willing to help. “We’ve given out to-go packs of supplies and shown people how to bottle-feed orphaned kittens,” Monica says. “Sometimes it’s cleaning supplies and information about handling puppies who aren’t yet potty-trained.” The goal is to help animals in ways that don’t result in an overburdened, over-filled shelter or killing dogs and cats.

“My dream world is that only the animals who truly need us come into shelters,” Monica says. That means sick or injured animals whose people can’t care for them, animals experiencing cruelty or neglect, and pets caught up in a human crisis, leaving no one to take care of them. The rest? Monica says, “Let’s use our resources to keep them in the community where they’re being cared for and loved.”

When shelters have a solid program to spay or neuter free-roaming cats, and they focus on offering services to help people keep their pets, that’s half of the equation — fewer animals coming in. The other half is more animals going into homes from shelters. Misty Valenta, animal services director at Williamson County Regional Animal Shelter in Texas, notes that adoptions account for 60% to 65% of the animals saved there. “It’s truly our community who are lifesavers,” Misty says. It’s easy to buy a pet from any number of sources, and it can be difficult to steer people to the shelter to adopt, rather than buy a pet. But approaches like Williamson County’s draw in people to adopt and in turn save homeless pets’ lives every day.

First, there are no excessive hoops people must jump through to adopt a pet. The shelter is open from noon to 6 p.m. every day of the week. There are no home checks, landlord checks, vet checks, or background checks. Adoption fees are low — just $75 to adopt a vaccinated, spayed or neutered, microchipped pet, and the shelter often runs specials offering lower-fee or even free adoptions.

These are standard and essential adoption practices that make it possible for shelters to reach and sustain no-kill. That’s the baseline. The real magic happens with how staff treat potential adopters when they come into the shelter.

[Shelters get creative to showcase adoptable pets]

“How would you treat someone who is doing 60% to 65% of the lifesaving work?” Misty says. “You would treat them like the rock stars that they are.” That means fantastic customer service. A lengthy application is replaced by spending time with adopters. The staff’s role is to listen and talk through what people are truly looking for in a pet. Meet and greets take place in play yards for dogs and in a room with kitty toys for cats. The vibe is like hanging out with a new friend, talking about and playing with each pet together, all with the goal of making a great match. “We want the experience to be different here,” Misty says. “We want people to have a transformative experience rather than a transactional experience.”

The shelter’s approach of welcoming people in and spending time with them not only results in a lot of adoptions, but the pets also tend to stay in those homes. Misty says, “Our monthly return rate for dog and cat adoptions combined is about 2%.” And even when national data shows a dip in adoption rates, Misty says, “That hasn’t been our experience here.” It’s no wonder. Who wouldn’t want to adopt a pet who fits beautifully into the adopter’s life — and be treated like a rock star at the same time?

A common theme emerged when speaking with these shelter leaders: They see their role as serving both pets and people. The way to save more pets is to have programs already in place and ready to go for every pet. Monica says, “We have to look at every animal as an individual and find the best placement option.” And Annette echoes the idea, adding, “If we do the right thing for every animal, the save rate works itself out.”

Above all, they spoke about working with people — because achieving and maintaining no-kill isn’t a shelter issue, it’s a community-wide issue. “The pets we receive are coming from the community, so why would we put up barriers for them to go back out to the community?” Misty asks. “We should be a point of service, a point of connection. Our role is not to block the community from the pets in need. Our role is to connect them.”

Note: Since the interview for this article, Monica Dangler has taken on a new role outside of Pima Animal Care Center that will continue to support lifesaving efforts in shelters. Pima County is dedicated to carrying forward the shelter’s commitment to save animals’ lives.

This article was originally published in the January/February 2025 issue of Best Friends magazine. Want more good news? Become a member and get stories like this six times a year.

Our goal at Best Friends is to support all animal shelters in the U.S. in reaching no-kill in 2025. 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.