Glossary
No-kill shelter
An animal shelter that saves at least about nine in ten of the animals it takes in, a benchmark often called the 90 percent live release rate.
Also called: no kill, no-kill movement, live release rate, save rate
No-kill is a label for shelters and communities that aim to avoid euthanising healthy or treatable animals. The most common yardstick is a live release rate of about 90 percent, which means that at least nine of every ten animals that enter leave alive, through adoption, return to owner, transfer or release. The remaining animals are generally those too ill, injured or dangerous to be safely placed, for whom euthanasia may be the humane choice.
The percentage depends on how it is counted. Some groups include all animals taken in, while others exclude pets handed in for euthanasia or those that die in care. Different organisations and local groups use slightly different definitions and time periods, so two shelters that both say no-kill may not be comparable.
The label has critics. Open-admission shelters that must take every stray, sick or aggressive animal can have lower rates, even when they work hard to save lives. Some limited-admission shelters can reach the figure partly by controlling which animals they accept. Ask a shelter for its figures and how they are calculated. A shelter's rate also depends on community support: foster care, adoptions, low-cost neutering and trap-neuter-return programmes all lift it.
Last reviewed November 7, 2026