The Toolkit - The No Kill Advocacy Center

The Humane Sheltering Science Guide

The No Kill Advocacy Center — Sun, 09 Feb 2025 06:59:43 +0000

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Shelters are stressful environments that negatively impact health, behavior, and adoption opportunities. For example, many traditional practices — such as restricting visual access and limiting interaction — lead to frustration and misbehavior in dogs, increasing their time to be adopted.

The Humane Sheltering Science Guide presents research-backed recommendations for improving the welfare of dogs, cats, rabbits, and other animals, shortening length of stay, and increasing placement rates.

The Guide also highlights the financial and community benefits of humane sheltering. Killing animals is costly, while lifesaving programs — such as working with rescue groups, facilitating adoptions, and implementing community cat programs — reduce expenses and improve public perception. Case studies show these policies increase adoption rates, boost local economies, and attract new businesses.

Using the Guide, shelters can prioritize enrichment, behavioral support, and medical care to create a more humane and effective animal welfare system.

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Pets Have Value

The No Kill Advocacy Center — Sun, 02 Apr 2023 22:21:11 +0000

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The pet product and service industry, including shelters, pounds, pet food companies, veterinarians, boarding facilities, and others, are not shy about exploiting what they call “the deep bond humans develop with their pets” when people write checks to them.

And yet the industries that benefit most from the public’s love and concern for their four-legged family members turn around and fight efforts to increase compensation for the victims of harm when it is their turn to put their money where their mouths are. Instead, they encourage courts to rely on 19th-century case law that held animals were worthless property, “analogous, in law, to a… table or lamp.”

As long as courts shield these companies, they have little incentive to provide better care or safer products. And given the deep and profound relationships between people and their companion animals, our legal system should recognize their importance. When others entrusted to care for our animal companions fail to do so, courts should compensate people in a manner that adequately reflects the depth of their suffering or loss.

We owe it to the animals and the people who love them to do so.

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Stand by Me

The No Kill Advocacy Center — Wed, 25 Jan 2023 23:42:27 +0000

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In many states, animal cruelty cases are rarely prosecuted and when they are, the punishment is weak. To prevent this, courts should appoint attorneys as advocates to represent the best interests of animals. In addition to the state prosecutor, the perpetrator’s defense attorney, and the enforcement agency (animal control or police officer),

The animal advocates are an official party to the case. They can do investigative work prosecutors often don’t have time for, such as interviewing veterinarians and other witnesses. They also make arguments, write briefs and make recommendations to the judge.

These laws work. Before Connecticut passed it, for example, 80% of cruelty cases were dismissed or not prosecuted. The rate of actual conviction was even worse. Of the 3,723 reported cruelty cases before passage, only 19 resulted in a conviction — ½ of 1%. That means 99.5% of people charged with cruelty faced little to no legal consequences.

Not anymore. “Both advocates and activists report stiffer penalties since the law’s enactment.” It has also led to “voluntary forfeiture of animals, restitution for rescue organizations, agreements to avoid future contact with animals, and agreements to seek counseling.”

In addition to laws banning people from having custody of animals following a cruelty conviction, we need similar laws in other states. And we need it not just in cruelty cases but in divorce and other disputes where an animal’s best interests might conflict with the people they are connected to.

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Defining No Kill

The No Kill Advocacy Center — Fri, 02 Sep 2022 06:59:00 +0000

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No Kill: An end to the killing of all non-irremediably suffering animals.

“Irremediable suffering” means an animal who has a poor or grave prognosis for being able to live without severe, unremitting physical pain even with prompt, necessary, and comprehensive veterinary care.

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No Kill 101

The No Kill Advocacy Center — Fri, 02 Sep 2022 06:27:00 +0000

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Two decades ago, a No Kill community was little more than a dream. Today, it is a reality in many cities and counties nationwide and the numbers continue to grow. And the first step is a decision by a shelter’s leadership: a commitment to reject kill-oriented ways of doing business, to replace a regressive, anachronistic 19th century model of failure with 21st century innovations by implementing the No Kill Equation. No Kill starts as an act of will.

Animals enter shelters for a variety of reasons and with a variety of needs, but for over 100 years, the “solution” has been the same: adopt a few and kill the rest. The No Kill Equation provides a humane, life-affirming means of responding to every type of animal entering a shelter, and every type of need those animals might have. Some animals entering shelters are community cats. At traditional shelters, they are killed, but at a No Kill shelter, they are sterilized and released back to their habitats. Some animals entering shelters are motherless puppies and kittens. At traditional shelters, these animals are killed as well. At a No Kill shelter, they are sent into a foster home to provide around-the-clock care until they are eating on their own and old enough to be adopted. Some animals have medical or behavior issues. At a traditional shelter, they are killed. At a No Kill shelter, they are provided with rehabilitative care and then adopted. Whatever the situation, the No Kill Equation provides a lifesaving alternative that replaces killing.

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Dollars & Sense

The No Kill Advocacy Center — Fri, 02 Sep 2022 06:12:00 +0000

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What does it cost to achieve No Kill? And does it necessarily cost more overall? Over the last several years, the No Kill Advocacy Center analyzed shelter funding and save rates in multiple states, the economic impact on shelter expenses and revenue, as well as the economic impact on community businesses and tax revenues. After analyzing that data, the answer became pretty clear: saving lives is more cost effective than killing.

No Kill is cost-effective, fiscally responsible, and a great economic boon to local communities. Municipalities which want to enact good policy and improve the local economy should invest in lifesaving at their local shelter. Given the cost savings and additional revenues of doing so (reduced costs associated with killing, enhanced community support, an increase in adoption revenues and other user fees, and additional tax revenues), as well as the positive economic impact of adoptions, a community cannot afford not to embrace No Kill.

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The Myth of Pet Overpopulation

The No Kill Advocacy Center — Fri, 02 Sep 2022 06:01:00 +0000

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Today, an animal entering an average American animal shelter has a roughly 40 percent chance of being killed, and in some communities it is as high as 99 percent, with shelters blaming a lack of available homes as the cause of death. But is pet overpopulation real? And are shelters doing all they can to save lives? If you believe traditional sheltering dogma, the answer to both those questions is “yes.” The next logical question is: How do we know? To adherents of the “we have no choice but to kill because of pet overpopulation” school, pet overpopulation is real because animals are being killed, a logical fallacy based on backwards reasoning and circular illogic. As to whether shelters are doing all they can, the answer here too, is long on cliché and short on evidence: because “no one wants to kill.”

In truth, and at the heart of the No Kill philosophy, is the understanding that the reasons we have historically been given for why animals are being killed in shelters—that there are too many for too few homes available, shelters are doing all they can, and the American public is uncaring and irresponsible—have been proven wrong in the face of irrefutable evidence: not only the data, but the experience of communities that have achieved No Kill level placement rates in six months or less (and many overnight). In other words, we know pet overpopulation is a myth because both statistics themselves and the experience of progressive shelters in communities across the country prove it is.

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Give Me Shelter

The No Kill Advocacy Center — Fri, 02 Sep 2022 05:51:00 +0000

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During the pandemic, U.S. animal shelters fell into one of two camps. The first were those that lived up to their mission, stayed open as an essential service (with policies to protect staff and the public), and met their obligations to residents and animals.

The second were those that closed their doors, turned animals away, and abandoned the debt and duties they owed animals and residents. These pounds did less work, cared for fewer animals, and all but ceased their adoption programs, even though it increased animal suffering. As a result, animals were left on the streets, including a blind pregnant cat found by one couple walking in circles: “It was just heartbreaking... They told us to release the cat.” Unfortunately — under a program they call “Human Animal Support Services” (HASS) — some shelters have made that permanent.

Why? To appear to be doing a better job than they are. Because shelters are turning animals away and published statistics only measure outcomes for animals taken in, they claim higher placement or “save” rates without doing the work necessary to achieve No Kill success in earnest. Meanwhile, animals are dying on the street.

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Section 1983 to the Rescue

The No Kill Advocacy Center — Fri, 02 Sep 2022 05:37:00 +0000

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Complaining about inhumane conditions, abuses, or violations of law at shelters is a constitutionally protected right. A volunteer, rescuer, or any other member of the public not only has the First Amendment right to speak out against abuses and violations of law committed by a government shelter, he or she also has a constitutionally protected right to demand that the government correct the wrongs that are identified.

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What Shelters Owe Traumatized Animals

The No Kill Advocacy Center — Fri, 02 Sep 2022 04:50:00 +0000

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What do we owe the neediest animals who arrive in our shelters looking for a second chance?

We owe them a safe harbor and time—time to abandon fear, to forget a haunted past, and most important of all, to learn that humans can be trusted after all. Indeed, with the right amount of love, kindness, compassion, positive conditioning, and, when necessary, veterinary intervention, psychologically wounded animals, like humans, have a remarkable capacity for resilience.

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Calculating an Animal Shelter’s Live Release Rate

The No Kill Advocacy Center — Fri, 02 Sep 2022 04:44:00 +0000

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Everyone is familiar with the old quip that there are three types of lies: lies, damn lies, and statistics. Statistical manipulation is very easy: It’s all about the assumptions and inputs one uses when crunching numbers.

In order to honestly and accurately determine how well or how poorly a shelter is performing—the percentage of animals who are leaving out the front door in the loving arms of families, rather than out the back door in garbage bags—it is therefore important to eliminate as much spin as possible. To do that requires raw data and transparency about what numbers are included, which are excluded, and, in some cases, even what happens to animals after they leave a shelter alive.

For shelter leadership, this information is essential to identifying where gaps in the safety net still exist. For shelter reform advocates, this information clarifies the precise nature of the change they should be seeking to ensure that a community’s neediest animals are receiving the loving care and second chance they deserve.

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We Can Do It

The No Kill Advocacy Center — Fri, 02 Sep 2022 04:23:00 +0000

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“You can’t adopt your way out of killing.” It is one of the most enduring dogmas in the animal shelter field. But it could not be more wrong. You actually can adopt your way out of killing. The data proves it. Experience proves it. And that is good news for animals and animal lovers.

Using the most successful adoption communities as a benchmark and adjusting forpopulation, U.S. shelters combined should be adopting almost nine million animals a year. That is over four times the number being killed for lack of a home. In fact, it is more than totalimpounds, and of those, almost half do not need a new home. But the news gets even better.

There are about 30 million people who are going to get an animal next year. Some are already committed to adopting from a shelter. Some are already committed to getting one from a breeder or other commercial source. But two-thirdshave not decided where that animal will come from and research shows they can be influenced to adopt from a shelter. That’s 20 million people vying for roughly two million animals. So even if the vast majority of those people acquired an animal from somewhere other than a shelter, we could still zero out the killing. And many communities are proving it.

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No Kill in Your Hometown

The No Kill Advocacy Center — Fri, 02 Sep 2022 03:57:00 +0000

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It is a story as old as our movement. The shelter in your community is killing large numbers of animals, the quality of care in the shelter is low, and the bureaucracy that oversees the shelter appears indifferent. A group of advocates wants the shelter to stop the needless killing and to start treating the animals as they deserve. But everywhere they turn—to the City Council or County Commissioners, to the media, to the large national organizations like the ASPCA or Humane Society of the United States—leads to nowhere. They get excuses, “It’s pet overpopulation,” “It’s the public’s fault,” “There is nothing we can do.” But someone has to do something, you think. That someone is you.

How to Be a Superhero for Shelter Animals

The No Kill Advocacy Center — Fri, 02 Sep 2022 03:38:00 +0000

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There are many ways to help achieve a No Kill community. You can force the shelter to change by passing legislation. You can engage in political advocacy. You can rescue animals directly from death row and find them homes yourself. You can take over the shelter. You can create a national campaign. And more.

What can we accomplish when we “DIY”? We can erase one day’s killing across the entire U.S. We can go from zero No Kill communities to one, from one to hundreds, from hundreds to a No Kill nation. We can successfully arrive at the brighter future we are striving for, on the road we paved that led there.

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How Does Your Community’s Shelter Measure Up

The No Kill Advocacy Center — Fri, 02 Sep 2022 03:36:00 +0000

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As the number of No Kill animal control shelters across the United States continues to grow, animal lovers nationwide are turning their attention to their local shelter and wondering whether it is meeting its lifesaving obligation to the animals and the community it serves. But how do you determine whether or not your local shelter is doing a good job? And what do you do when it is not? This guide explains how to measure a shelter’s performance and how to begin to hold shelter staff accountable when those results are not what they should be.

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Animal Evaluation Matrix

The No Kill Advocacy Center — Fri, 02 Sep 2022 03:05:00 +0000

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Which illnesses or injuries are treatable? Since temperament testing is so unreliable, how can shelters protect both dogs and people? How can shelter staff feel confident they are doing everything possible for every single animal every single time?
The No Kill Advocacy Center has developed a model animal evaluation matrix to help shelters answer those questions (and for rescuers and advocates to hold them accountable if they don't).

Our "Animal Evaluation Matrix: Policies & Procedures That Protect the Lives of Shelter Animals" includes medical and behavior protocols, diagnostic tools, end of life protocols, with forms and checklists to increase accountability and improve performance, and more.

These protocols were developed in collaboration with some of the most successful shelter directors in the country; directors running municipal and animal control-contracted shelters with placement rates of 98% - 99%. By following the protocols, shelters with live release rates above 95% have reported even higher ones as a result. Those below 90% will see even more dramatic lifesaving increases. While we encourage all shelters to fully implement them, shelters can also evaluate them on a pilot project basis.

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No Dog Left Behind

The No Kill Advocacy Center — Fri, 02 Sep 2022 02:55:00 +0000

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When it comes to saving dogs with behavior issues in shelters, how many—what percentage—can we place? Is it 90% of shelter dogs as some advocate? Is it 95% as others do? Is it 98%? Or is it higher?

In fact, based on four recent studies, the pioneering work of behaviorists, and the results of some of the most successful and progressive shelters in the country, a live release rate of even 99% for dogs is not high enough. Thankfully, the path to ending their killing altogether is now clear.

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There Ought to Be a Shelter Reform Law

The No Kill Advocacy Center — Fri, 02 Sep 2022 02:42:00 +0000

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For No Kill success to be widespread and long lasting, we must focus on institutionalizing No Kill by giving shelter animals rights and protections afforded by law irrespective of who is running the shelter. Every successful social movement results in legal protections that codify expected conduct and provide protection against future practices that violates normative values. We need to regulate shelters in the same way we regulate hospitals and other agencies that hold power over life and death. The answer lies in passing and enforcing shelter reform legislation that mandates how a shelter must operate.

The ideal animal law would ban the killing of dogs and cats, and would prohibit the impounding of community cats except for purposes of placement or sterilization. Yet given that local governments may not pass such sweeping laws at this time in history, advocates must seek shelter reform legislation that forces shelter leadership to operate their shelters in a progressive, life-affirming way, removing the discretion that has for too long allowed shelter leaders to ignore what is in the best interests of the animals

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Countering the Opposition

The No Kill Advocacy Center — Fri, 02 Sep 2022 02:40:00 +0000

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Fifteen years ago, No Kill opponents argued that no Kill was simply impossible. they called it a “hoax,” a “marketing ploy” and nothing more than “smoke and mirrors.” With No Kill success throughout the nation, these claims have lost traction. With an increasingly informed public and the pressure for reform mounting across the country, those who defend killing have evolved their tactics in several ways.

As animal lovers work to overcome the crisis of cruelty and uncaring endemic to animal shelters, the entrenched opposition—both shelter directors themselves and their allies at animal protection organizations—invariably respond to demands for reform with the excuses highlighted in this guide.

What's in a Name?

The No Kill Advocacy Center — Fri, 02 Sep 2022 02:19:00 +0000

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Today, many Americans believe that the ASPCA and HSUS own and operate shelters across the country. In reality, the ASPCA runs one shelter in New York City which has historically sent the neediest of animals down the street to the pound where they are killed. HSUS runs no shelters. And yet they collectively takes in about 300 million dollars a year in revenues because many people mistakenly think they are donating to their local shelter when they donate to these groups. And they think that way, in part, because HSUS and the ASPCA want them to think this.

Not long ago, the ASPCA went door to door in Seattle, Washington, asking for donations. ASPCA solicitors were told to bring a dog and they were given an “Adopt Me” vest for the animal to wear. The purpose was clear: confuse people into thinking the agency was local and its mission was to save lives locally. The volunteers were given a very specific script from which they were told not to deviate. When one of those hired to fundraise suggested it was misleading, she was asked to leave. This type of duplicity isn’t limited to Seattle. Nor is it limited to the ASPCA. HSUS is also committed to keeping local donors in the dark as to where their money is going. Why? The fact is that the truth about the ASPCA and HSUS wouldn’t sell: the misplaced priorities and defense of killing, the money hoarding, sending animals to kill shelters after they raise money on their “rescue.” And so they misrepresent their work, take credit for the success of others and work to keep the American public ignorant of who and what they really are

These protocols were developed in collaboration with some of the most successful shelter directors in the country; directors running municipal and animal control-contracted shelters with placement rates of 98% - 99%. By following the protocols, shelters with live release rates above 95% have reported even higher ones as a result. Those below 90% will see even more dramatic lifesaving increases. While we encourage all shelters to fully implement them, shelters can also evaluate them on a pilot project basis.

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