SOUTH CAROLINA — Best Friends Animal Society, an animal welfare organization, recently released its sixth annual pet lifesaving dataset, which gives a national overview of the number of dogs and cats that enter and exit shelters in a given year.

Best Friends measures shelter lifesaving with a metric called “save rate.” A 90 percent save rate is the nationally recognized benchmark to be considered “no-kill,” factoring that approximately 10 percent of pets who enter shelters have medical or behavioral circumstances that warrant humane euthanasia rather than killing for lack of space.

In 2021, 103,917 dogs and cats entered South Carolina shelters and 87,608 were saved, giving the state an aggregate save rate of 84%. In the same year, 45% of state shelters measured above the 90% benchmark. Those that were below it needed to save 7,169 more healthy or treatable animals to make South Carolina no-kill (a state is considered to be no-kill when every brick-and-mortar shelter serving and/or located within the state has a save rate of 90% or higher).

By comparison, in 2020, 100,473 dogs and cats entered South Carolina shelters and 83,447 were saved, giving the state an aggregate save rate of 83.05%. In the same year, 41.67% of state shelters measured above the 90% benchmark. Those that were below it needed to save 8,005 more healthy or treatable animals to make South Carolina no-kill.

South Carolina did well last year compared to the country collectively. In particular, Horry County Animal Care Center who saved almost 1,000 more pets last year than the year prior and Oconee County Animal Control who was able to go from a 66% save rate in 2020 to an 89% save rate in 2021. Both of these shelters made lifesaving strides through community cat and trap-neuter-vaccinate-return programs that helped keep healthy outdoor cats out of shelters where they are killed at a rate of 2:1 compared to dogs.

The data showed that nationally for the first time in five years, U.S. shelter systems are seeing a setback in lifesaving. In 2021, the number of dogs and cats killed for reasons other than severe medical or behavioral issues that could not be rehabilitated in U.S. shelters increased from 347,000 to 355,000 and was especially stark when compared to the dramatic lifesaving efforts seen throughout the previous year. The reasons were partly due to staffing shortages that limited hours, decreased in-person volunteers, reduced adoption events and pet care support. As overall lifesaving stalls, Best Friends’ data shows the animal shelter crisis in America growing with increasing intakes and waning adoptions.

“The responsibility of saving pets’ lives should not rest solely on shelters and those in animal welfare, but on entire communities including community members, government leaders, shelters and other animal welfare groups,” said Julie Castle, CEO of Best Friends Animal Society. “Through collaboration and community involvement, this model provides better support for pet owners, efficiency in shelters, and more lifesaving outcomes for pets. When a community supports its shelter’s critical needs, we see dramatic results.”

Individuals can help save lives by choosing to adopt from a shelter or rescue group, spay or neuter their pets, foster, volunteer, donate, and support and advocate for community cats through trap-neuter-vaccinate-return (TNVR) and shelter-run TNVR programming.

For the past six years, Best Friends has spearheaded a one-of-a-kind extensive data collection process that involved coordinated outreach to every shelter in America followed by additional research, data analysis, and technology development. The dataset is the most comprehensive on U.S. sheltered animals, and is based on data collected directly from shelters, state and local coalitions, government websites, and FOIA requests. From this, 94% of the animal intake in U.S. shelters is known, 6% is estimated.

Founded in 1984, Best Friends is a pioneer in the no-kill movement and has helped reduce the number of animals killed in shelters from an estimated 17 million per year to around 355,000. Best Friends runs lifesaving programs across the country, as well as the nation’s largest no-kill animal sanctuary.