The Business of Saving Lives - Maddie's Fund Kill Progress/Getting t… · Shelter deaths have...

Saving all of our healthy and treatable shelter dogs and cats by 2015 is not only possible…

It’s probable.

• Pet lovers are re-homing their own pets

• Successful spay/neuter programs

• Managed intake

• New initiatives keep cats out of shelters

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Fewer Pets Are Entering Shelters

• Free adoption events – increase new homes – bust the myths that justify euthanasia

• Adopted pets in homes rose from 27% in 2008 to 29.5% in 2010

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Adoptions Are Up

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U.S. Deaths Are Down

Deaths of healthy and treatable pets down to 2.7 million

Shelter deaths have plummeted since 1970

Shelter Pet Save Deaths per Deaths Rate Thousand People 1970 23 Million 12% 112 1996 6 Million 42% 23 2010 3.4 Million 55% 11 2015 700,000 90% 2 Projected

Dogs & Cats in Homes

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The U.S. population is growing, and more households are adding

four-legged family members

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More and more animal welfare resources are coming into play

Funding from Foundations

• 24 out of 28 veterinary schools have shelter medicine programs

• The number of trained shelter medicine specialists is growing by leaps and bounds

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More shelter veterinarians are keeping shelter pets healthy and rehabilitating sick and injured pets

In Live Release Deaths/1,000 2011/2012 Rate People

Northwest, CO (4 counties) 97% .6

Albemarle County, VA 94% 1.7

Tompkins County, NY 92% 1.4

Washoe County, NV 92% 3.0

Berkeley, CA (4 cities) 90% 1.4

Dane County, WI 87% 1.4

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A growing number of communities are proving it can be done

At Least 200 No-Kill Communities

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• People think of their pets as family members

• 71% of those polled say animal shelters should only be allowed to euthanize animals when they are too sick to be treated or too aggressive to be adopted

The Public is On-Board

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Shelter Pet Marketing is Everywhere

• The Shelter Pet Project has generated over $130 million in donated media placements on billboards, bus shelters, radio and TV

• Over 4 million visitors have used The Shelter Pet Project website; more than 2 million have viewed the PSAs on YouTube

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• The number of healthy and treatable pets losing their lives for lack of a home has dropped to 2.7 million

• 17 million pet lovers predisposed to shelter adoption will be looking for a pet next year

• We need to convince only 2.7 million out of 17 million to adopt from a shelter

• That equates to just 4 additional pet adoptions per animal group per week

The Task Ahead

• Shelter populations are declining

• More effective shelter programs

• More veterinarians trained in shelter medicine

• More no-kill communities leading the way

• More resources

• Massive marketing campaigns

• The public is with us 12

Yes, we can get to No-Kill by 2015