Shelter Animals Count – 2021 Report

What does “no kill” mean?

At Heartland Animal Shelter, it means that each cat and dog under our care will be placed for adoption, even if they require medical or behavioral intervention or rehabilitation. We do not euthanize animals unless there is irremediable suffering, or in the rare event that a dog is too dangerous to rehabilitate and cannot be placed into the community safely and alternative placement options are unavailable.

What is Heartland’s save rate?

Since the shelter opened in 2002, we have been a no-kill organization. The national benchmark for save rate to be considered no-kill is 90%. Since 2007, we have saved at least 98% of the animals in our care each year, even with our increased focus on saving the most vulnerable populations of cats and dogs!

How is the save rate determined?

Shelters are able to choose the method they use to compute their save rate data which causes some inconsistencies in reporting. The Asilomar Accords permits shelters to remove some numbers from their live release data, including owner-requested euthanasia and animals that died or were lost in care. We do not consider those reports accurate.

We are firm supporters of a transparent “noses in, noses out” reporting approach. We believe that each cat and dog matters and we do not leave any animals out of our calculations, under any circumstance. We count each and every death and euthanasia in our numbers and even in doing so, we are proud to have achieved a 98% save rate in 2021.

2021 Live Release Rate = 98%

SPECIES BY AGECANINEFELINETotal
Adult Up to 1 year AdultUp to 1 year
Beginning Animal Count
(Date: 1/1/2021)
20042062
Live Intakes
Stray / At Large 0 0 12324
Relinquished by Owner 6617 1912114
Transferred in from Agency 265153119188725
Born in Care0 140014
TOTAL LIVE INTAKE 331184 139223877
Outcomes
Adoption 310160150197817
Returned to Owner 00 000
Transferred Out 1920122
Returned to Field 00000
Subtotal: Live Outcomes 329162150198839
Died or Lost in Shelter Care02013
Shelter Euthanasia 415414
Subtotal: Outcomes 435317
TOTAL OUTCOMES333165155203856
Ending Animal Count
(Date: 12/31/2021)
1819262083

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When you adopt from a no-kill shelter, you save two lives. The animal you adopt and the one that replaces him.

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