West Virginia cuts animal shelter deaths in annual report

CLARKSBURG, W.Va. – West Virginia has reduced the number of animal shelter deaths from this year’s annual figures, according to reports.

The Best Friend’s Animal Society ranked West Virginia 23rd for rescuing most dogs and cats from shelters in its pet rescue dashboard.

Of the 40,429 dogs and cats that entered shelters, 34,177 found positive placements, while 2,739 were killed, for a saving rate of 85%, up 5.7% from 2019. There were 3,227 fewer pets killed last year. About 43% of shelters in West Virginia are non-killing.

The Pet Rescue Dashboard, launched in 2019, is a tool that provides local communities, individuals and policy makers with data so they can take collective responsibility for what happens to pets in the world. their community, and better support their local shelters.

The company said that while progress was being made towards an entirely destruction-free state, there was still life to be saved.

“We are very excited. There was huge progress at some of the shelters in West Virginia last year, ”said regional manager of Stacy Rogers Best Friend’s Animal Society Midwest. “We’re really, really excited, especially as a representative from the Midwest, to see so many groups from West Virginia doing so many great things because shelters are working really hard every day to save more animals.”

“It has been a monumental year for cats and dogs in American shelters,” said Julie Castle, CEO of Best Friends Animal Society. “We have seen communities, shelters and individuals rallying for animals in ways we could not have imagined, and now we are closer than ever to our no-slaughter goal here. 2025. ”

Rogers said the best way for others to push for the state to be completely kill-free is to help and support your local shelter, adopt shelters, and watch animals in the community to get them neutered. and sterilize.

Nationally, approximately 347,000 cats and dogs were killed in U.S. shelters in 2020, up from 625,000 in 2019. This is the largest annual reduction in dogs and cats killed in shelters nationwide ( 44.5%) to date, which puts the country at 83%. saving rate.

“Since we announced our no-slaughter goal, the number of cats and dogs killed in shelters has declined by 76%, down from around 1.5 million in 2016. This is incredible progress, but we don’t need to. never lose sight of the fact that there are still over 950 cats. and dogs being killed every day just because they don’t have a safe place to call home, ”Castle said.

Founded in 1984, Best Friends Animal Society is an animal welfare organization working to end the slaughter of dogs and cats in U.S. shelters by 2025.