For the first time in the history of the city, Los Angeles has become a no-kill region for shelter animals.
"It’s difficult to overstate the enormity of this moment and its place in the history of the no-kill movement. NKLA (No-Kill Los Angeles) has demonstrated what’s possible when an entire community works together," Julie Castle, chief executive officer for Best Friends Animal Society said in a statement. "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."
The NKLA initiative was launched in 2012, and at that time only 56 percent of dogs and cats were making it out of LA city shelters alive,” the statement reads. By 2020, the city sustained a save rate of 90.49 percent."
"A 90 percent save rate is the nationally recognized benchmark to be considered no-kill, factoring that approximately 10% of pets who enter shelters have medical or behavioral circumstances that warrant humane euthanasia rather than killing for lack of space," according to The Best Friends Animal Society statement.
LA Animal Services, Best Friends, and more than 150 NKLA coalition partners worked together to ensure that Angelenos are able to foster and adopt pets despite COVID-19 restrictions.
For more information, visit bestfriends.org.