How No-Kill is Calculated
Save Rate can be calculated on a monthly, quarterly or annual basis. To be considered “no-kill” an organization must achieve and maintain a 90% save rate in aggregate over the course of a 12-month period. An organization can reach a 90% save rate for the year even if not every month within that 12-month period has a 90%+ save rate. Once a shelter achieves no-kill, it is considered no-kill for the next 12-month period.
Shelters can achieve no-kill either for a full calendar year, fiscal year, or any consecutive 12-month timeframe. For example, if a shelter maintained a 90%+ save rate from March 2024 to February 2025, it would be considered no-kill for the next 12 consecutive months.
The Save Rate Formula
For shelters, save rate is calculated as:
(Live intakes – Non-live outcomes*) / Live intakes = Save Rate
*Non-Live outcomes = animals euthanized, euthanized by owner request, died in care or lost in care.
Owner-Requested Euthanasia
Best Friends counts animals euthanized at owner request as both intakes and non-live outcomes. While Best Friends understands the importance of this service in many communities, the number of animals euthanized at owner request generally fits within the 10% margin for being considered no-kill.
The exception to this is if a shelter has a full-service, public veterinary clinic that offers a range of public services, these euthanasias would be considered clinic services and not sheltering services and not included in save rate calculations.
Which Organizations Are Measured For A No-Kill Designation
Best Friends only calculates save rates for organizations with a brick & mortar building. Foster–based rescues play a critical role in helping a community and the nation achieve no-kill. However, as our goal is to end the needless killing of pets in shelters, we recognize that foster-based rescue groups are unlikely to kill healthy and treatable animals in foster homes.
Why 90%?
Best Friends recognizes a 90% save rate for animals entering a shelter as a meaningful and commonsense benchmark for measuring lifesaving progress. No-Kill, as a philosophical principle, means saving every dog or cat in a shelter who can be saved, but it’s helpful to have a way to clearly measure lifesaving progress as we move forward together.
In most shelters and most communities, the number of pets who are suffering from irreparable medical or behavioral issues that compromise their quality of life or threaten public safety and prevent them from being rehomed is not more than 10% of all dogs and cats entering shelters. Therefore, we designate that shelters achieve no-kill when a 90% save rate benchmark has been achieved.
For more information, visit our page on What No-Kill Means and download this No-Kill infographic.