Let’s Keep Our Animals Safe: No-Kill Shelter Trend Catches On

The latest data show that the number of no-kill shelters across the United States reached an all-time high in 2022, a positive trend in the quest for putting a definitive end to the practice of euthanizing pets.

In 2016, only 24% of shelters were no-kill whereas in 2022, according to the national dataset, that proportion reached 57%. Moreover, the vast majority of shelters – 93% of them to be precise – that was no-kill in 2021 managed to remain no-kill in 2022.

Vermont became the United States’ third no-kill state after New Hampshire and Delaware. Rhode Island, North Dakota, Maine, and Montana are on the brink of reaching no-kill status as those four states’ number of euthanized pets is declining. In 1984, a staggering 17 million pets died in shelters, 45 times the number of animals killed in shelters in 2022. Efforts must endure further to increase the number of no-kill shelters in America.