Saving90.org is a project of the No Kill Advocacy Center.
We list communities that self-report placement rates of 90% or more of dogs, cats, rabbits, and other animals, an important milestone on the road to No Kill. While we continue to applaud the growing number of communities in the 90% Club, they are not necessarily No Kill. We recognize that the goal of the No Kill movement is not to simply reduce the killing to some consensus-based percentage. It is to end the killing of animals who are not irremediably suffering and thus return the term “euthanasia” to its dictionary definition.
With the number of communities reporting placement rates as high as 99% increasing at a dramatic rate, with progress in veterinary medicine, and with advancements in our understanding of canine behavior, we cannot judge today’s success on yesterday’s antiquated standards. This is not some aspirational goal for the future. We can do better than 90%. Indeed, we can do better than 95%. The growing number of communities placing 98%, 99%, and even higher prove it. Communities should not set future goals for themselves that are a step backward from what the movement has already achieved.
The science is on our side. Ethics are on our side. The numbers are on our side. And experience is on our side.
Onward and upward…
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 based on a combined rate or 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 also do not list communities based on media reports. We have verified that many of the communities claiming a 90% placement rate to the media fall below that, in some cases well below 90%, when their numbers are actually counted. For example, one California community claimed to have a 93% placement rate, but when all cats were counted, the placement rate was only 77%. This is not uncommon.
We list communities that self-report placement rates of 90% or more of dogs, cats, rabbits, and other animals, an important milestone on the road to No Kill. While we continue to applaud the growing number of communities in the 90% Club, they are not necessarily No Kill. We recognize that the goal of the No Kill movement is not to simply reduce the killing to some consensus-based percentage. It is to end the killing of animals who are not irremediably suffering and thus return the term “euthanasia” to its dictionary definition.
With the number of communities reporting placement rates as high as 99% increasing at a dramatic rate, with progress in veterinary medicine, and with advancements in our understanding of canine behavior, we cannot judge today’s success on yesterday’s antiquated standards. This is not some aspirational goal for the future. We can do better than 90%. Indeed, we can do better than 95%. The growing number of communities placing 98%, 99%, and even higher prove it. Communities should not set future goals for themselves that are a step backward from what the movement has already achieved.
The science is on our side. Ethics are on our side. The numbers are on our side. And experience is on our side.
Onward and upward…
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 based on a combined rate or 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 also do not list communities based on media reports. We have verified that many of the communities claiming a 90% placement rate to the media fall below that, in some cases well below 90%, when their numbers are actually counted. For example, one California community claimed to have a 93% placement rate, but when all cats were counted, the placement rate was only 77%. This is not uncommon.