Animal Shelters in the U.S.

Across the United States there are about 60 million to 100 million stray animals. Only about 6.5 million of these stray animals are admitted to animal shelters. About 3 to 4 million of these animals are being adopted but as the years go by, the amount of adoptions happening each year is decreasing. On the positive side, there is a decrease in the amount of animals being euthanized. In 2024, 748,000 dogs and cats were euthanized compared to the 920,00 dogs and cats that were euthanized in 2010. This is due to the decreasing amount of kill shelters in the U.S. In 2016, 24% of shelters were no kill shelters but in 2024 that number more than doubled to about 52%. The biggest no-kill animal shelters in the U.S. are The Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, Big Dog Ranch Rescue and North Shore Animal America League. The Best Friends Animal Shelter is located in Utah and is known as the largest no-kill animal shelter in the U.S and provides homes for up to 1,600 dogs, cats, birds, bunnies, horses, pigs and many more. Big Dog Ranch Rescue is an extremely unique animal shelter that is cage-free and has saved 75,000 animal lives located in Florida. Finally, North Shore Animal America League is one of the longest running animal shelters in the country and since 1944 they have been able to save 1,200,000 million animals. Animal shelters require the support and efforts of a whole entire community, if you aren’t able to adopt an animal there are other ways to help. Some animal shelters offer day trips with the animals, volunteer work, reading to the animals, help through donations and simply spreading the word about the animal shelter could boost an animal's chance to get adopted. Check out animal shelters within your community and learn how you can get involved to help the next pup to find a home!