An update on strides in Animal Welfare in the past years:

Animal welfare is one of those fields where specific stories make the headlines, but the overall climate of animal welfare is usually not something that is talked about much.  To fill you in a bit, our field has made leaps and bounds in lifesaving.  In recent years, an increasing number of shelters and communities have made the same commitment the Lynchburg Humane Society made over a decade ago – not to euthanize healthy pets or treatable pets and to never euthanize because a pet has been in the shelter for a certain amount of time or because their shelter is out of space.  Instead of euthanizing healthy pets, shelters are holding adoption specials, increasing foster programs, offering rehoming resources and resources to help people keep their pets in their homes. We are excited for this positive change for the pets.

Animal Welfare organizations had a difficult 2022

However, 2022 showed to be the most challenging year in lifesaving that has been seen in recent history.  There are shelters across the country who have not had to euthanize for space or time in years, but in 2022 these shelters were forced to make some tough decisions because of the decrease in adoptions and increase in pets in need. We are still learning and gathering data as to why this is happening.  Currently, it seems to be in line with the economic climate – people are having to make tough choices too, choosing between paying their bills or having a pet. 

While the Lynchburg Humane Society didn’t have to make those difficult lifesaving decisions, we were greatly affected by the challenges of 2022. We had pets staying longer than they have in years past and we saw a decrease in adoptions. But the most notable challenge was the number of emails and pleas we received from other shelters to help them with their overflowing shelters and feeling helpless because we couldn’t help as much as we usually are able to.  We were able to help over 700 at-risk pets from other shelters, but because we were at (or over) capacity ourselves, we couldn’t help as many as we wanted to.

How you can help lost and homeless pets across the country:

We are committed to help fight this battle and continue to help pets in need and help other shelters become “no-kill” to stop the euthanasia of healthy, treatable pets.  As always, we need your help to do that.  Please encourage everyone you know to adopt a pet instead of buying one, to spay/neuter, to seek resources when needed, to volunteer at their local shelter, to donate.  All these things will help us help the pets in 2023.