News

Best Friends Animal Society ‘No-Kill Utah’ Report Card

by Amy Davila

The NKUT Coalition is working to ensure that every shelter and community reaches the threshold 90% save rate individually, rather than averaging all shelters and communities together. When Utah achieves this goal, we will be the second no-kill state in the country by this standard.

This save rate means that at least 90% of the animals entering Utah shelters leave alive, either through adoption, being taken in by another animal group, or being returned to their owners. (The remaining 10%, or less, typically are euthanized for severe, untreatable medical or behavioral issues.)

At the end of 2018, Utah’s save rate stood at just above 85%. There were an estimated 3,490 pets killed in Utah shelters last year, simply because they didn’t have safe places to call home. While that number may seem daunting, it represents just ten additional families or individuals each day over the next year choosing to save a life by adopting a pet from a shelter or rescue group

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