The Moonshot - No-Kill 2025

05/19/20 • 46 min

The progress towards a no-kill nation has been remarkable. From approximately 17-million animals killed in 1984 to 733,000 in 2019. Of course, one healthy or treatable pet killed is one too many.

Saying we need to end the killing of pets is great, but it takes a strategy to help the 5,000 shelters across the country get there. And a strategy is great, but it’s even better when you get specific with your goal and add the urgency that the animals deserve.

That’s No-Kill 2025. Working collaboratively, aligned around this common goal, together, we are ending the killing of pets in our nation’s shelters.

The progress towards a no-kill nation has been remarkable. From approximately 17-million animals killed in 1984 to 733,000 in 2019. Of course, one healthy or treatable pet killed is one too many.

That’s No-Kill 2025. Working collaboratively, aligned around this common goal, together, we are ending the killing of pets in our nation’s shelters.

Previous Episode

Let's Spay Together

As governments scrambled to react to the COVID-19 pandemic, one word dominated conversations related to stay at home orders. Essential. Is the service or business, critical to the health and welfare of the community? Where do animal services fit into that picture?

While there’s little debate that animal control is necessary as a component of public safety, other elements of what we do were being judged on their merits. Spay and neuter surgeries were handled differently across the country both by government officials and people in our field. How essential are they?

We talked with leaders in three states about how they managed their clinic work during this time. And we talked with Aimee St. Arnaud, Director of National Veterinary Outreach for Best Friends Animal Society, about the larger picture of veterinary services during the pandemic, and what challenges lie ahead.

Next Episode

American Pets Alive! Piloting Social Services Model of Sheltering

Our work has evolved rapidly the past several years as we all work to change an institutionalized sheltering system that was not designed to save lives. The operational changes during COVID-19 have served to accelerate even more change and a determined group of leaders believes now is the time for us to create a new paradigm.

Historically our focus has been on helping pets but people have not been given the same priority. Times have changed and while we’re better at the people part, this new model of sheltering seeks to turn everything on its head and serve the community in new ways.

American Pets Alive! is leading the charge with a pilot project in 13 cities* where they hope to determine if an “Animal Social Services Model” is the wave of the future.

*since the publication of this episode, New York City has moved down to a tier two community