Los Angeles Animal Shelters Reach 90 Percent Save Rate

LOS ANGELES, CA — Los Angeles animal shelters officially achieved "no-kill" status for the first time ever with nearly all cats and dogs held in city shelters last year saved from euthanasia.

The milestone was lauded last week by Best Friends Animal Society, an animal welfare nonprofit that launched the No-Kill Los Angeles campaign in 2012 with the goal of saving 90 percent of cats and dogs. When the campaign was launched, the average save rate at shelters in the city was 56 percent.

The city was able to reach this point after many "challenging, inspiring, grueling, heartwarming, tear-jerking, life-changing years" involving a coalition of animal rescue groups and individuals doing their part to help increase the rate of cats and dogs saved from shelters, Julie Castle, CEO of Best Friends, said in a statement.

“I can’t even begin to describe how huge this is,” Castle said. “Los Angeles is the second-most populous city in the entire country and now has become the most-populous, geographically largest and most racially and economically diverse city to become no-kill.”

Part of the reason Los Angeles reached this point was also because of the coronavirus. The Pasadena Humane Society received a surge of applications from people interested in fostering pets during the pandemic, Vice President Jack Hagerman told the Los Angeles Times in April. “We’ve had 1,451 people come forward wishing to foster a shelter pet,” he said.

The bump in pet adoptions and fostering due to the pandemic wasn't unique to Los Angeles. At the height of the pandemic, New York City shelters quickly ran out of cats and dogs eligible for fostering or adoption, The Hill reported.