Every year, dogs and cats who could be adopted into loving homes are euthanized in animal shelters. About  597,000 animals were euthanized in 2025. 

Animals that are healthy, treatable, or capable of being placed with families should not lose their lives simply because a shelter lacks space, resources, foster homes, or enough time to find them a home.

Shelters and the governments that fund them should prioritize lifesaving alternatives before euthanasia: adoption, foster programs, transfers to rescue organizations, accessible spay-and-neuter programs, community partnerships, and increased efforts to reunite lost pets with their families.

No-kill does not mean warehousing animals or ignoring public safety. It does mean operating fiscally and ethically responsibly. Helping people keep their pets, find them a new home, or transfer them to a rescue group is less costly in the long run than housing them in a shelter and killing them when resources run out.  –Tawny Hammond shelter director and national advisor for no-kill advancement at Best Friends.

We are calling on our local governments and animal shelter leadership to adopt a no-kill policy that protects healthy and treatable animals and makes euthanasia a last resort rather than a routine response to overcrowding.

Please give shelter animals the chance to be adopted instead of being euthanized. Sign this petition and demand stronger lifesaving policies for the animals depending on us.