Chatham 90 Goals

In 2022 4,922 pets entered Chatham County animal shelters and the combined save rate for those pets was 82%.

1. Chatham County Animal Services: 2,434 intakes, 68% save rate

2. Humane Society for Greater Savannah: 2,488 intakes, 97% save rate

A save rate of 90% and above is the current national benchmark for being considered “no-kill.” This means that we have 1 out of 2 shelters considered ‘no-kill’ but for a community to be considered a ‘no-kill’ community, all of its shelters responsible for animal control intake must be saving 90 percent or more collectively. Setting a numerical goal is important for tracking success but a no-kill community is ultimately one that acts on the belief that every healthy, adoptable dog and cat should be saved, and that its focus should be on saving as many lives as possible through pet adoption, spay/neuter, trap-neuter-return and other community support programs rather than achieving a specific numerical outcome.

1. Chatham 90’s initial goal is to implement new programs to move the combined save rate from 82% to 90%.

2. Our secondary goal is grow those programs to get Chatham County Animal Services to a 90% save rate.

Chatham 90 is collaborating on programs to help Chatham County reach this goal by:

• Providing resources to keep pets out of shelters

• Increasing adoptions

• Returning more lost pets to owners

• Increasing awareness of the Chatham County TNVR program for community cats

• Increasing transfers to rescue groups

• Growing transport programs

• Increasing access and reducing the cost to Spay/Neuter

We chose the lost/found pets program as our first major initiative since 38% of the 4,922 pet intakes in 2022 were lost dogs and cats. For the first time, pets reported to Chatham County Animal Services as lost/found are available for viewing online.