# Source: Best Friends — National No-Kill Campaign Page **Type:** source **Status:** Useful **Confidence:** Medium **Source Type:** official-page **URL:** https://bestfriends.org/no-kill **Archive:** https://web.archive.org/web/20260719121012/https://bestfriends.org/no-kill **Archived:** 2026-07-19 **Publisher:** Best Friends Animal Society **Retrieved:** 2026-08-12 **Raw:** raw/best-friends-no-kill-goal-page/2026-08-11-e3cfb8047180.txt **Updated:** 2026-08-11 **Relates:** cites [Best Friends Animal Society](best-friends-animal-society.md) · https://greatutah.work/pages/best-friends-animal-society.md · https://bestfriends.org/no-kill ## Summary Best Friends' national no-kill campaign page, captured **2026-08-11 — seven months after the organization's own 2025 deadline**. This matters for how the page can be used: it is not a record of the goal as originally stated, it is the record of how Best Friends talks about that goal now that the date has passed. The document was requested at `bestfriends.org/no-kill-2025` and served from `bestfriends.org/no-kill`; its title is "After decades of work, no-kill is within reach, thanks to you." The campaign no longer names a target year anywhere. The 2016 goal appears only in the past tense. ## Useful Claims - Best Friends states it set a goal in **2016 to achieve no-kill nationwide by 2025**, and now describes the country as "closer than ever" rather than as having met or missed it. **No new target date appears on the page.** - It states shelter killing dropped from **over 1 million cats and dogs in 2016** to **around 425,000 pets in 2024** (self-reported). - The headline claims **2 out of every 3 shelters are now no-kill**. The page's own denominator elsewhere: **of roughly 3,900 US shelters, 1,300 are not yet no-kill**, though it says nearly half of those are within 100 animals of the threshold. - It states a dog or cat is killed in a US shelter **every 90 seconds**. - It dates **the first known city to reach no-kill to 1994**. - A section titled **"Tracking our lifesaving progress with data"** points to "See the data" — evidence that Best Friends publishes progress tracking, though this page does not describe the dashboard. ## Verbatim > 2 out of every 3 shelters are now no-kill, and that number is growing. > — Page headline > We set a bold goal in 2016 to achieve no-kill by 2025. If that seemed like a lofty goal, that’s because it was. But big goals help us push past boundaries in ways we never dreamed possible. And now, we’re closer than ever to reaching no-kill nationwide. > — "The future has never looked brighter for America's pets" > In 2016, when we set the goal to achieve no-kill nationwide by 2025, over 1 million cats and dogs were killed in shelters. Now, thanks to passionate animal lovers like you, that number dropped to around 425,000 pets in 2024. > — "The future has never looked brighter for America's pets" > After decades of work, no-kill is within reach, thanks to you > — Page title and page heading > We’ve come a long way since the first known city reached no-kill in 1994, and now we’re closer than ever to making the entire country no-kill. Of the roughly 3,900 shelters operating in America today, 1,300 of them are not yet no-kill, but nearly half are close with 100 or fewer additional pets to be saved, and we know what to do to get them there. > — Body > But there are still more animals to be saved. Every 90 seconds, a dog or cat is killed in our nation’s shelters just because they don’t have a safe place to call home. > — Body > Tracking our lifesaving progress with data > — Section heading > Knowing where we stand not only helps determine the best way to move forward, but it also helps track the progress we're making together. > — "Tracking our lifesaving progress with data" > In addition to our pet adoption centers around the U.S, we also founded and run the nation's largest no-kill sanctuary for companion animals. > — Footer boilerplate ## Reliability Notes Self-reported tier, and campaign copy rather than a report. The shelter-killing counts are Best Friends' own statistics — strong evidence of what the organization advocates and how it frames progress, not an independent audit of shelter outcomes. **Read this capture for what it is: a post-deadline document.** The organization set a public target of nationwide no-kill by 2025, and as of this 2026-08-11 capture its campaign page has been retitled around "within reach," recounts the goal in the past tense, and sets no new date. It neither claims the goal was met nor concedes it was missed. That is a meaningful fact about the campaign and the reason this page states the capture date so prominently — a reader who assumed this document was written before the deadline would misread every sentence in it. Note also the selection effect in the page's own framing. The headline figure is "2 out of every 3 shelters are now no-kill"; the same page's denominator, further down, is that 1,300 of roughly 3,900 shelters are not. Both are quoted above so the ratio can be read either way. The data-dashboard claim is only partially established: this page references tracking and links to data but does not describe a national shelter database, and a dedicated dashboard page was not captured. ## Related Pages - [Best Friends Animal Society](best-friends-animal-society.md) - [Source: Best Friends Animal Society — About Page](best-friends-animal-society-official-website.md) - [Source: Best Friends Animal Sanctuary Page](best-friends-sanctuary-page.md)