Adoption Pact working
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1995:
SAN FRANCISCO––”We predicted
that impounds would increase as the public
became aware of the Pact’s lifesaving guaran-
tee,” recounts the newly published SF/SPCA
report covering the first year of the revolutionary
no-kill animal control agreement. “The theory at
the heart of the Adoption Pact is that more peo-
ple will surrender their unwanted pets to shelters,
as opposed to abandoning or neglecting them, if
they know the animal is going to be placed in a
loving home rather than be killed. Total
impounds of San Francisco dogs and cats did
rise, by 1,314 animals.”
The SF/SPCA placed 5,054 animals
during the first 12 months of the Adoption Pact,
including 3,382 animals who required medical or
behavioral rehabilitation, 2,314 of whom would
have been euthanized at the city shelter before
the Adoption Pact, under which the SF/SPCA
accepts all healthy or recoverable animals
received by the city.
The San Francisco citywide adoption
rate is now at 85% of total shelter intakes. The
current U.S. rate is circa 27%, according to both
individual shelter and statewide records in the
ANIMAL PEOPLE files. The lowest rate for a
major city is 9%, in Chicago. The range for
whole states is from 16% in Texas to 46% in
New York, or 31% in Washington if North
Shore Animal League placements of animals
from out of state are subtracted from the New
York totals. NSAL does nearly half of all the
adoptions done in New York––including about a
third of the adoptions of animals picked up with –
in the state.
The popularity of the Adoption Pact is
such that SF/SPCA membership increased from
57,760 in June 1994 to 70,991 by June 1995.
