Michigan Pet Fund Alliance (MPFA) announced a 90% statewide average live release rate for dogs and cats in Michigan shelters for 2018, including animals returned to owners, transferred to other shelters and rescue organizations, and adopted.
“This is an amazing first for our state,” said Deborah Schutt, MPFA founder and chairperson. “When the shelters in a state combine to meet the 90% target, that state is considered No Kill for shelter animals. Only Delaware, which has three shelters, compared to 174 in Michigan, also reached the No Kill benchmark last year.”
MPFA began tracking Michigan statistics in 2009 from annual reports submitted by shelters to the Michigan Department of Agriculture & Rural Development, as required by law. Those reports showed more than 120,000 dogs and cats were losing their lives in Michigan shelters every year. That number is now just over 13,000 for the entire year of 2018.
MPFA is the only statewide organization whose mission is to end the killing of homeless healthy or treatable cats and dogs in Michigan. To support that mission, they offer a wide variety of programs and technical assistance to shelters and rescue groups, including grants, awards, mentoring, networking hands-on training and shelter assessments. Kroon grants provide rescue organizations up to $200 toward veterinary bills for each special needs or elderly animal they pull from shelters.
“While it’s exciting to see Michigan as a state achieve No Kill status by reaching the 90% goal, we still have a few communities struggling to save lives, especially with cats,” Schutt said. “We will continue to work with shelters and rescue organizations to implement best practices, decrease overall length of stay in the shelter and improve the quality of life for homeless pets while they are in shelter.”
ABOUT MICHIGAN PET FUND ALLIANCE
Michigan Pet Fund Alliance is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization advocating nationally recognized best practices that save lives and stop the killing of healthy and treatable homeless cats and dogs in Michigan shelters. MPFA provides lifesaving grants, mentoring, educational opportunities, networking, and other support to shelters and rescues. For more information, please visit MichiganPetFund.org [michiganpetfund.org].
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