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Katie Holp

Professor Johnson

ENG 1201

20 March 2020

The overabundance of stray animals has long been a real crisis facing our nation.  While there is

a great desire to make changes, nothing ever seemed like enough to level out the upward trend of

healthy animals being euthanized. Many tactics have been tried like accepting any animals no

matter the condition to free adoption programs, but nothing seemed to be working towards the

goal of all animal shelters being “All No-Kill by the year 2025.”  Taking an in-depth look at

what shelters and other animal advocates are working on to help combat this problem and

learning from the successes and failures is helping shelters make great strides in reaching their

goal.  But don’t be fooled, by thinking this means all shelters will become 100% no kill shelters. 

Claiming this would be unrealistic. This would be unhealthy and unfair to those animals brought

into shelters who were already “ill enough or badly injured enough.” (King par.5) to not be

humanely euthanized.  What the focus will be is “Should all shelter work towards the goal of

becoming no-kill shelters by 2025?” 

Since the early 1970’s, the number of animals in shelters has been an ongoing problem.

In the article “Why Euthanasia Rates at Animal Shelters Have Plummeted,” Alicia Parlapiano

addresses the issue of stray animals going all the way back to the mid-19th century, when “New

York City adopted a policy to drown stray dogs that were not claimed,” just to keep them out of

shelters. (Parlapiano par.9) And by the 1970’s “the Humane Society estimated that 25 percent of

the nation’s dogs were out on the streets and that 13.5 million animals were euthanized in

shelters each year.” (Parlapiano par.11) But when Gregory Castle, the CEO of Best Friends
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Animal Sanctuary in Kanab, Utah stated that he would fight for an animal welfare movement,

the dream of a no-kill nation was made into a reality. And now many people join in his fight to

help animals not only live healthy and happy lives inside of shelters, but also helping them

become more suitable for adoption.

Many of the articles repeat the different programs that Best Friends Animal Sanctuary

have provided to help animal shelters who want to reach the goal of no-kill by 2025. For

example, in the article “Zeroing in on no-kill nationwide by 2025,” Holly Sizemore lists three

main programs that could make this fight a little easier. First, there are Community Cat Programs

which help many animals killed in shelters which are cats, by keeping them out of shelters, but

also helping to prevent more kittens from being born because of the TNR strategies (trap-neuter-

return). This specific term was mentioned in many articles and means that feral cats will be

neutered or spayed in order to prevent more cats from being born and returned to “field

strategies,” keeping them out of shelters. (Sizemore par.9) Another program for the care of cats

is kitten care which gives “newborn kittens,” “round-the-clock care, which most shelters can’t

provide.” (Sizemore par.10) Third, pet transport, which gives animals “lifts from overcrowded

shelters to communities where they’re more likely to find homes faster.” (Sizemore par.11)

Many of these programs not only try and reduce the number of animals going into

shelters, but also try and keep animals healthy inside the shelters. Because as Kate Hurley, the

Director of the Koret Shelter Medicine Program at UC Davis explains, the “relatively

unsuccessful part of this equation is putting animals in shelters and then trying to get them out

healthy, sane and alive.” (Keith par.26)

There are many supporting factors for the animal welfare movement, those who are

fighting to help change the lives of animals in shelters and reduce the number of animals
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euthanized each year. There are also “defenders of the traditional sheltering and animal control.”

(Keith par.6) They believe the goal of all animals being adopted is unrealistic and because of the

numbers we are facing there is no way to “adopt our way out of pet overpopulation.” (Keith

par.6) But with the help of the programs that were developed in San Francisco it “would result in

shelter intakes going down and adoptions going up.” (Keith par.7) So too many animals in

shelters should not be a problem that would need taken care of.

While great strides have been made, many misconceptions still exist. For instance, many

believe that the number of animals entering shelters are and equal 50-50 ratio of dogs and cats.

But in reality the number of cats is far larger than the number of dogs, that is why many shelters

are trying to prevent more cats from being born but also providing more programs to provide

service to those cats in shelters, once again helping them become more suitable for adoption.

Another example of a common misconception is that, because of the number of shelters that are

involved with this movement and so many people are working hard towards their goal, the

problem of animals entering into shelters and euthanization rates are decreasing and soon it will

no longer be a problem. But this is certainly not the case, for a very long time now many teams

of shelter staff have been working at lowering the number but as of right now the goal of 90

percent no-kill for all shelters in the US has not been achieved.

The number of stray animals on the streets continues to increase and so does the number

of animals entering the shelters. So Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, along with many other

groups and shelters in the US, are working together to create a solution. They are providing

many programs and adoption opportunities to help fight this conflict. And I believe the result

will save so many animals and give them a chance at life and a forever home.
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Works Cited:

Battista, Francis. “No-Kill Shelters by 2025.” Best Friends Animal Society, 21 July 2017,

bestfriends.org/blogs/2017/07/21/2025-lets-do-this.

Keith, Kristie. “No Kill Nation.” The Bark, 3 Nov. 2017, thebark.com/content/no-kill-nation-0.

King, Barbara J. “Could 'No Kill' For Shelter Cats And Dogs Be Policy By 2025?” NPR, NPR,

30 Mar. 2017, www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2017/03/30/521882094/groups-unite-toward-

no-kill-goal-for-shelter-cats-and-dogs-by-2025.

Parlapiano, Alicia. “Why Euthanasia Rates at Animal Shelters Have Plummeted.” The New York

Times, The New York Times, 3 Sept. 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/09/03/upshot/why-

euthanasia-rates-at-animal-shelters-have-plummeted.html.

Society, Best Friends Animal. “Best Friends Animal Society Names Julie Castle As CEO.” PR

Newswire: Press Release Distribution, Targeting, Monitoring and Marketing, 27 June

2018, www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/best-friends-animal-society-names-julie-

castle-as-ceo-300615567.html.

Sizemore, Holly. “Zeroing in on No-Kill Nationwide by 2025.” Best Friends Animal Society, 28

May 2019, bestfriends.org/blogs/zeroing-no-kill-nationwide-2025.