No More Homeless Pets in Utah, a program of Best Friends Animal Society, is a coalition of rescue groups, shelters and veterinarians working together to end the euthanasia of homeless dogs and cats statewide, and to promote humane alternatives for feral cats. The program places a strong emphasis on increasing the numbers of both adoptions and spay/neuter surgeries throughout the state.
The number of animals euthanized in Utah can be measured by a number known as the "E-Metric."The E-Metric represents the number of homeless dogs and cats euthanized in Utah's shelters annually per 1000 human population.In 1999, our baseline year, the E-metric stood at 21.7.
Now it stands at 12.6.
Our goal is to bring it to 5.0, generally accepted nationally as a 'no-kill' situation.The significant drop has come about through the dedicated work of many people, including many of you who are reading these words. You have achieved this by putting more energy and creativity into finding new, loving homes for stray and abandoned dogs and cats. You have achieved it by spaying and neutering more and more animals to reduce the breeding. You have achieved it by doing more than ever to let Utah know about the problem and what can be done about it.
We still have some way to go. We are about half the way to our goal. It is of course tragic that so many healthy animals have to be put to sleep daily, simply because homes are not being found for them. At No More Homeless Pets in Utah, we will continue to do everything we can to work with rescue groups, shelters, veterinarians, volunteers, and animal lovers in Utah to change this.
