How To: Help Animals Leave Shelters Alive

Live release rate (LRR) is a formula that calculates the percent of animals that leave shelter facilities alive. Help animals and your local shelter get their LRR up. Here’s what you can do:

1. Adoption. Adopt a pet or help some animals get adopted. Just be sure to know the details on how to adopt safely. You can also help your shelter develop an on-site or off-site animal adoption campaign. Are you an artist? Maybe you can help design flyers? Are you good with people? Maybe you’d be good at spreading the word and getting newspapers on board to spread the word.
2. Return-to-owner. Some animals are in shelters because they were lost and the owner hasn’t been located. Help out by posting “found your pet” flyers around the neighborhood. Or volunteer to help look through lost animal databases match lost animals with found animals. This can be tedious work but the result is rewarding!
3. Transfer. Help the at-risk animals get transferred to another non-profit agency that can guarantee a home for all of the animals it receives. Talk to your local shelter to see how you can help out.
4. Greeting helps. Help your local shelter develop a Greeter Program so visitors are directed to the right counter or person when they come in. Get your friends to volunteer as greeters and/or recruit interested people at your school, community center, or place of worship.
5. Promote chips. Have an awareness campaign to encourage the micro-chipping of cats and dogs.
6. Foster programs. Support your shelter’s foster-an-animal programs. Foster if you can or organize a drive to get supplies for fosterers if you can’t.
7. Volunteer at your local shelter. Stop by or call to see what you can do to help. Aren’t old enough? Ask what toys the animals like and organize a collection drive of animal toys.
8. Create a map of the shelters in your area and share it with your neighbors so they know where to go when they’re searching for a lost pet or when they’re ready to adopt.
9. Start a drive to get gas cards donated to your shelter’s transport program.

Note: The following ideas help to decrease the number of animals entering shelters—which helps increase the LRR:

1. Spay/Neuter info. Get the word out and support no- or low-cost spay/neuter services in your area.
2. ID tags for all. Promote the use of identification tags for ALL cats and dogs ALL the time.