The City of Los Angeles has become a no-kill city for animal shelters for the first time, thanks to the heroic efforts of the city, L.A. Animal Services, a coalition of animal welfare organizations, compassionate leaders and a dedicated community.
On March 10th, The Best Friends Animal Society, which is focused on stopping the killing of nearly 4 million pets across shelters in America, made the announcement.
“It’s difficult to overstate the enormity of this moment and its place in the history of the no-kill movement. NKLA has demonstrated what’s possible when an entire community works together,” said Julie Castle, chief executive officer for Best Friends Animal Society. “By expanding this collaborative model nationwide, Best Friends’ goal to make every community in the U.S. no-kill by 2025 becomes even more of a reality.”
According to a statement, “When Best Friends first launched the NKLA (No-Kill Los Angeles) initiative in 2012, only 56 percent of dogs and cats were making it out of Los Angeles city shelters alive. In 2020, the city sustained a save rate of 90.49 percent.”
The COVID-19 pandemic brought about a massive wave of community involvement to keep pets safe in homes.
Brenda Barnette, general manager of LA Animal Services, said “We’re so grateful to Best Friends, our many rescue partners, staff, volunteers, and the community who responded to foster and adopt the animals in our Centers during the pandemic, which helped us achieve our 90.49 percent lifesaving rate by year-end 2020.”
Best Friends Animal Society, founded in its present form in 1993, is an American nonprofit 501 animal welfare organization. The group does outreach nationwide with shelters, rescue groups and members to promote pet adoption, no-kill animal rescue, and spay-and-neuter practices.
