We list communities that self-report live release rates of 90% or more of dogs, cats, rabbits, and other animals. We can't really say they are all No Kill. We subscribe to the view by the No Kill Advocacy Center that while we celebrate communities that are saving 90% or more, communities that do so are not necessarily No Kill. As such, this website is aspirational and inspirational. We hope by listing communities with live release rates of 90 - 99% of animals, it will encourage others to try and reach 90% and do so for all animals. When they do, we hope they continue to reach higher still. For help, check out these resources from the No Kill Advocacy Center.
Please note: While others suggest there are more communities than we have listed, and there may be more we do not know about, we do not include communities that fall below 90% when animals who died in their kennels or were killed at the request of their owners are included. We do not believe doing so is honest. We try to list only communities which include all intakes and all outcomes. We also are no longer listing communities based on media reports. We have verified that many of the communities claiming a 90% live release rate to the media fall below that, in some cases well below 90%, when their statistics are reviewed. For example, one California community claimed to be No Kill to be at 93%, but when we crunched the data, the live release rate was only 77% for cats.
Please note: While others suggest there are more communities than we have listed, and there may be more we do not know about, we do not include communities that fall below 90% when animals who died in their kennels or were killed at the request of their owners are included. We do not believe doing so is honest. We try to list only communities which include all intakes and all outcomes. We also are no longer listing communities based on media reports. We have verified that many of the communities claiming a 90% live release rate to the media fall below that, in some cases well below 90%, when their statistics are reviewed. For example, one California community claimed to be No Kill to be at 93%, but when we crunched the data, the live release rate was only 77% for cats.
