Michigan, Along With Delaware is now a “No Kill” State for Shelter Animals

 Michigan is now officially a no-kill state for shelter animals along with one other state: Delaware.

In order to be a no-kill state, for shelter animals, 90 percent of the animals in the shelter are either returned to their previous owners, transferred to different shelters or rescue organizations or adopted, according to NBC 15.

“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.”

Michigan reached the no-kill status in 2018.

“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.”

The Michigan Pet Fund Alliance (MPFA) started tracking these statistics in 2009 from annual reports submitted by shelters to the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

**A no-kill status doesn’t mean that euthanizations are banned or not done, but instead, it means that the shelters that achieve a no-kill status achieved a 90 percent live release rate on the animals that were in the shelters.

Shelters are required to annually report the total number of each kind of animal euthanized each year.

The “no-kill” term includes “best practices” for animals in shelters, according to the alliance. Euthanasia may still have to be done, but the alliance recommends that euthanasia only be done on animals that are sick enough that treatments will not work or on overly aggressive animals.

According to the alliance and the No Kill Advocacy Center, here are some ways that shelters can work toward becoming a no-kill establishment:

• By spaying and neutering your pets, which helps reduce the number of pets that end up in a shelter.
• Instead of putting an animal in a shelter, try to find a rescue group or a foster home for the animal.
• Volunteer at an animal shelter.
• Publicize lost pets so they can be returned to their owners.
• Make sure your shelter has an adoption program in place to let people know there are pets that need to be adopted.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/lifestyle-buzz/michigan-is-a-no-kill-state-what-that-actually-means-for-shelters/ar-AAH5tDN

https://www.wave3.com/2019/09/09/michigan-is-now-no-kill-state-shelter-animals/