Moving Beyond No-Kill: A Better Goal for Animal Shelters And Rescues.

When I started in animal welfare, No-Kill was the goal. I fostered for a Pit Bull rescue in New Jersey and took my first job at a non-profit shelter in Camden, NJ, that held municipal contracts. From there, I worked at another non-profit in Texas, then moved into municipal shelters, a sanctuary in Utah, and now lead a municipal shelter in Jacksonville. Throughout this journey, I believed that achieving the No-Kill status alone meant success.

But my perspective has changed.

I have visited, consulted with, and worked in shelters across the country—municipal, non-profit, sanctuary, rescue—and I’ve seen firsthand how the term No-Kill is both divisive and misleading. It was a motivation for me early on, but I now see how much harm it causes. The public does not understand the term, despite years of marketing from national organizations.

The Divide It Creates

Shelters that haven’t reached No-Kill are perceived as careless, cruel, or indifferent to animals. Shelters that have achieved the designation are seen as heroes who never euthanize. Neither of these perceptions is accurate. The reality is that shelters working toward No-Kill—those struggling with resources, funding, and staffing—are the ones that need community support the most.

I’ve worked in a shelter where the save rate was just 54% when I arrived. The excuses were endless: We’re a city shelter. We only have Pit Bulls and Chihuahuas. No one wants them. We don’t have money. But I looked around and saw other shelters in similar positions doing better. I went to conferences, researched, talked to leaders, and learned what worked. We implemented playgroups, expanded adoptions, engaged with fosters, and got to a 96% save rate. The difference wasn’t in the label; it was in the programs and the effort to do better.

A Better Goal

Instead of striving for a No-Kill label, shelters should aim to be community pet heroes.

This goal should focus on the percentage of animals making it out of the shelter alive—not a title. And beyond the percentage, we should evaluate whether a shelter is implementing key lifesaving programs:

- Playgroups

- Open adoptions

- Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR)

- Lost pet reunification efforts

- Accessible medical care for shelter pets

For most shelters, a 90% save rate is a great benchmark, but it shouldn’t be the only factor. Instead of a simple percentage, we should assess whether shelters are using every available tool to save lives and keep pets with families.

Changing the Conversation

We need to shift the focus from shelter euthanasia to community programming—the solutions that prevent euthanasia in the first place. Instead of asking if a shelter is No-Kill, we should be asking: Is your shelter a community pet hero?

Being a community pet hero highlights what shelter and rescue workers and volunteers truly are. Doing everything for pets in the community is tough work! Most of the time, it’s thankless, and no matter how hard you try, it feels like it’s not enough. But these are the people who show up every day to save lives, reunite families, and advocate for pets that have no voice. They deserve to be recognized for their dedication, not judged based on an arbitrary label.

Animal Care and Protective Services

For us in Jacksonville, with our staff working as hard as we do, the amount of adoption events we run, the amount of intake diversion we complete, the amount of surgeries our single vet completes, the amount of research we do to get pets back home, and the creative programs we create—I refuse to call us a kill shelter. We’re not. My team are community pet heroes.

Can we get better? Yes! For sure! We hover around an 85% save rate, and I’m sure we’ll get to 90% and beyond. But with all the work we’re putting in, how hard we’re trying, and how compassionate and empathetic our team is, I’d love to see someone come watch us for a day and leave thinking we’re killers. I get to work with heroes every day, and I know one day soon, everyone in our community and beyond will see that.

-MB