New Data Reveals State Rankings in Saving Dogs and Cats in Shelters
KANAB, Utah (April 2, 2026) —Best Friends Animal Society, a leading national animal welfare organization dedicated to ending the killing of dogs and cats in America’s shelters, revealed its 2025 rankings that show how many additional dogs and cats need to be adopted in order to make every state no-kill.*
Four states maintained no-kill in 2025, meaning every shelter in the state saved 90 percent or more of their pets. Those states were Delaware, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont.
Idaho, Montana, North Dakota and Wyoming came very close to no-kill in 2025, with 50 pets or less needing to be adopted in order to save every heathy and treatable pet in shelters. Connecticut, Idaho, Maine, and Nebraska had 300 or fewer additional pets while five other states, plus the District of Columbia, had a thousand pets or less to save to reach no-kill across their state.
Below is a breakdown of approximately how many more pets need to be saved in each state – from closest to no-kill to furthest:
Idaho – <50
Montana – <50
North Dakota – <50
Wyoming – <50
Maine – 100
Connecticut – 200
Nebraska – 200
Massachusetts – 500
D.C. – 600
West Virginia – 600
Alaska - 700
Oregon – 700
South Dakota – 800
Minnesota – 1,200
Utah – 1,200
Washington – 1,200
Iowa – 1,300
New Jersey – 1,600
Missouri – 1,800
Nevada – 1,900
Colorado – 2,000
Kansas – 2,000
New York – 2,200
Wisconsin – 2,400
Arizona – 3,600
Pennsylvania – 4,000
Hawaii – 4,800
Mississippi – 5,400
Arkansas – 5,500
Maryland – 7,200
Virginia – 8,300
Indiana – 8,400
South Carolina – 8,900
Michigan – 9,200
Oklahoma – 9,700
Tennessee – 9,700
Illinois – 10,500
Kentucky – 10,800
Ohio – 11,100
New Mexico – 11,600
Louisiana – 12,000
Georgia – 19,800
Florida – 20,000
Alabama – 21,300
North Carolina – 36,900
California – 54,400
Texas – 78,800
For the ninth year in a row, Texas continues to top the list of states with the highest number of dogs and cats needed to be saved. California came in second. However, both states did reduce the overall percentage of shelter killings in 2025 versus 2024 by over 10 percent in both states.
Nearly half of all U.S. states have now issued no-kill proclamations since 2024. Twenty-three states (Arizona, Georgia, Idaho, Mississippi, North Dakota, Utah, Montana, Virginia, Washington, Arkansas, Louisiana, West Virginia, Oregon, Connecticut, Kansas, Iowa, Oklahoma, Indiana, Vermont, New Hampshire, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Illinois) have taken this inspiring step, setting a powerful precedent for other states to follow suit.
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.
To see how your state is doing visit Best Friends Pet Lifesaving Dashboard.
*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.