Delaware becomes the first “no-kill” state.

Delaware has made history as the first no-kill shelter state, according to Best Friends Animal Society. They are a non-profit organization passionate about animal rights and well-being.

Under this definition, a shelter must euthanize no more than 10% of dogs and cats in their care. Best Friends recognizes that while euthanasia is the most compassionate option for some. However, this is not typical.

“Last year, about 733,000 dogs and cats were killed in our nation’s animal shelters, simply because they didn’t have safe places to call home,” the group says on their website. “Together, we can change that and achieve no-kill for dogs and cats nationwide by 2025.”

Best Friends recently announced Delaware’s new status at its annual conference.

Brandywine Valley SPCA announced the news on their social media accounts last week.

“The Brandywine Valley SPCA has a live release rate of 95% for the more than 14,000 animals a year we intake,” Linda Torelli, marketing director of Brandywine Valley SPCA, said in an interview with CNN. “Within Delaware, we intake more than 60% of the animals entering shelters and more than four times the next largest shelter, so our policies have had a significant impact on the state becoming no-kill.”

Torelli says that a few of the initiatives that have allowed Delaware become a no-kill state include massive adoption events, trap/neuter/spay programs for cats that wouldn’t be adoptable otherwise , low-cost vet clinics and more.

View your state’s statistics on Best Friends’ website. The organization compiles this data from a number of publicly-available sources.

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