(Alameda, CA - October 2001) Dog and cat adoptions rose 25% in Utah animal shelters last year while shelter deaths declined 10%. That according to a first year Progress Report issued by No More Homeless Pets in Utah, a statewide animal welfare coalition funded by Maddie’s Fund to save every healthy shelter dog and cat throughout the state within five years.
The report’s impressive statistics triggered a $1.8 million second year grant from Maddie’s Fund, a grant that was conditioned upon goal attainment in year one. To date, the No More Homeless Pets in Utah coalition has received $3.3 million from Maddie’s Fund. The Foundation intends to offer as much as $9 million over five years if yearly goals and other requirements are achieved.
The adoption goal for No More Homeless Pets’ first year was to boost the number of cats and dogs placed in loving homes by 3,034. The coalition exceeded its goal, finding homes for 4,818 dogs and cats over the previous year’s baseline. Total adoptions numbered 24,099, an increase of 25% over the previous year. No-kill groups exceeded their adoption goals by 77%.
A second goal was to decrease shelter deaths by 3,034 dogs and cats. Again, the coalition exceeded its goal, decreasing deaths by 4,622, a 10% decline from the number of shelter deaths in the previous year.
The coalition also performed 13,478 spay/neuter surgeries in Year One through a coupon voucher program, coming within 90% of achieving their spay/neuter goal of 15,000 surgeries.
“We are so impressed by what No More Homeless Pets in Utah has accomplished in just one year,” said Maddie’s Fund President Rich Avanzino. “The coalition’s achievements are a clear signal to the nation that we can stop the killing of healthy, adoptable animals in our country’s animal shelters.”
No More Homeless Pets in Utah is a statewide coalition of twenty-one no-kill organizations, a traditional animal shelter, sixty animal control agencies and seventy-one veterinary hospitals. To follow the progress of No More Homeless Pets in Utah, visit our Funded Projects section.
