Delaware Becomes The First "No-Kill" State In The U.S. For Animal Shelters

This is amazing! Delaware is making history as the first and only no-kill animal shelter state in the country! According to Best Friends Animal Society, a non-profit animal welfare organization. for a state to be recognized as "no-kill," it must achieve a 90% save rate for all the animals that enter -- and Delaware did that.

Brandywine Valley SPCA, which has three locations in Delaware and cares for more than 14,000 animals each year, have multiple programs implemented on how they achieved this no-kill status!

Posted by AmyBrown

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How are they achieving this?

Brandywine Valley SPCA has implemented numerous programs so that 95% of animals that enter the open-admission shelter find homes! And because cats are euthanized twice the rate of dogs, the nonprofit organization has been doing something called "trap, neuter and return," also known as TNR. TNR helps advocates safely and humanely trap the felines, the vets then spay and neuter them before they return back into the community. This process has saved the lives of feral cats that would otherwise be euthanized.
Brandywine Valley SPCA also has open adoptions in which don't require time-intensive applications. This helps move animals more quickly through the shelter.

Via Brandywine Valley SPCA
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Brandywine also hosts two “mega-adoption events” each year

"They are weekend-long events where we adopt out over a thousand animals in two days," Linda Torelli, director of marketing for the Brandywine Valley SPCA, said. "It's an amazing experience. It's really something to see."

Via Brandywine Valley SPCA
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There is a myth that shelter pets are "broken" and Torelli is here to break that myth:

"There's a long list of reasons why great pets end up in shelters," said Torelli. "I'd encourage people to have an open mind of the kind of animals you're going to find in a shelter. In most cases, you're going to find what you're looking for."
Often animals wind up in shelters through no fault of their own: an owner dies and no one in the family can take the pet, someone with allergies moves into the home (which there soon might be a vaccine for), or the owner gets sick and moves to a facility that doesn't allow pets.

Via Brandywine Valley SPCA
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This is huge for the Delaware and we hope to see other states reach the same achievement!

Chief mission officer for Best Friends Animal Society, Holly Sizemore, said Delaware's achievement is the big step toward creating a no-kill America by 2025.

Via Brandywine Valley SPCA