Animal Mission

Our goals are:
1. Make spay and neuter affordable and accessible to all pet-owning members of our community.
2. Reduce the number of unwanted pets who enter our shelter system each year.
3. Through our spay and neuter voucher program and other related intake-diversion programs, help enable a sustained Live Release Rate of 90% or greater at our city animal shelter.

Reducing the cycle of shelter overcrowding and space-based euthanasia is our primary objective, with funding as our primary hurdle. Our spay and neuter program is supported entirely by public charitable contributions, and we receive no government support for the work we do. With increased financial resources at our disposal, our opportunities to accelerate this progress would make our goal of 'No Kill' status for the Midlands a reality within the next three years. We are on target to achieve this, and have made the recent investment in a full time paid director position to manage fundraising and program development. Since adding this position, we have been able to increase our charitable income by over 12%, even during a pandemic year with limited event opportunities. This has also enabled an increase in program spending by over 18% in the same period.

The data from the last 16 years of our program shows an undeniable success story for the City of Columbia shelter. We know the spay/neuter approach works in combating shelter overcrowding and space-based euthanasia in the shelters. At the moment, our shelter has not had to euthanize a healthy or adoptable animal for space or resource reasons in over 2 years. Contrast that with the situation we encountered when the program first began (with nearly 80% of all animals received being euthanized), and you'll see the effectiveness of our efforts. With the capacity to continue offering our services at the level required by the need in our community, we'll be able to advance closer to our goal of 'No Kill.'
Our existing program employs the cooperation and partnership of over 33 low cost clinics and private veterinary practices, all of whom accept our voucher as payment and also perform their services at a heavily discounted rate on our behalf. This is a community-wide project, with community-wide participation by those interested in advancing the state of animal welfare in our community.

Thanks to overwhelming community support and the efforts of our volunteer board of directors and shelter staff, the live release and intake numbers continue to improve each year. The City of Columbia shelter now sits at live release rate of nearly 81% (with intake also greatly reduced) and our goal of 90% saved has never been closer. Since 2006, we have contributed more than $2.7 million for more than 61,000 spay/neuter procedures. A detailed graph of all data collected since 2006 (available on our website) shows the very clear and significant impact this program as had on our community so far, and highlights the continuing downward trend in space/resource based euthanasia.