Press Room

NEWS RELEASE
Maddie's Fund

Contact:

Rich Avanzino, President, Maddie's Fund (510) 337-8979

ZERO DEATHS FOR NEW YORK'S
HEALTHY SHELTER PETS IN FEBRUARY

(Alameda, CA – March 2007) Thanks to the Mayor's Alliance for NYC's Animals, Animal Care & Control of New York City, and the ninety plus partners of Maddie's^® Pet Rescue Project in New York City, no healthy dog or cat died in a New York City animal shelter during the month of February.

The lifesaving achievement crowns two years in which Maddie's^® Pet Rescue Project in New York City exceeded its goals in every category.

Since the Project began on January 1, 2005, total shelter deaths in New York City have decreased 35%, from 31,816 in the baseline year to 20,818 in 2006. Euthanasia of healthy shelter pets has declined even more dramatically, from 14,000 to 3,831 (a drop of 73%).

At the same time, adoptions have risen from 12,831 in the baseline year to 22,892 in Project Year Two. Adoption guarantee agencies have increased adoptions 72%, from 7,904 to 13,579.

In order to ensure a full adoption guarantee for healthy dogs and cats by Year Five, Maddie's^® community projects are asked to put an adoption guarantee in place for healthy animals for one month in Year Three and for three consecutive months in Year Four. Maddie's^® New York Project got that task out of the way so quickly that it might be possible for the coalition to save the remaining healthy shelter pets months or even years ahead of schedule.

"We are so excited about New York's lifesaving results," said Maddie's Fund President, Rich Avanzino. "We congratulate every individual in every organization who has worked so hard to reach this benchmark."