In its first year since announcing its transition to becoming a no-kill shelter, the Lynchburg Humane Society says it reduced its rate of euthanasia by 61 percent over 2009.
No healthy pets were killed at the humane society’s shelter last year, according to a news release issued by the nonprofit Thursday.
The save rate — the number of animals that leave the shelter through adoptions, are returned to their owner or are sent to other facilities — jumped from 65 percent in 2009 to 84 percent in 2010.
“We were able to show that an open admissions shelter can save all the healthy animals and that euthanasia is not the only way of dealing with pet overpopulation,” said Makena Yarbrough, executive director of the shelter, in the release.
The shelter introduced a number of new programs last year that increased the shelter’s adoption rate by 11 percent, including a foster program in which pets are placed in other homes while awaiting adoption, an appointment system for owners who need to surrender their pets, low-cost spay and neuter programs and adoption specials.
“We honestly can’t do this life-saving work without help from the community,” Yarbrough said in the release. “That includes everything from donations and volunteering, to owners willing to wait to bring us their pets because they know it gives their animals a better chance.
“In return this helps the other homeless and lost animals who don’t have anyone to advocate for them.”
Yarbrough said 33 percent of owners who contacted the shelter to surrender their pet either rehomed them or worked through the problem and decided to keep them, equating to some 298 pets that did not end up in the shelter.
The Lynchburg Humane Society is a nonprofit animal welfare organization that promotes humane and responsible treatment of animals, unites lost pets with their families, and find homes for the animals housed in the shelter.
For more information, conatact the Humane Society at (434) 846-1438 Ext. 13 oir visit the website at www.lynchburghumanesociety.org.
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