FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 21, 2011

The numbers are in and the Seattle Humane Society is proud to announce an all time high save rate of 94.1 percent for 2010 – a 2.3% increase from 2009! Thanks to support from the community and generous donors, we were able to place 5,493 animals this past year. Of those, 5,077 were placed in homes of their own, 187 lost pets were reunited with their families and 229 were transferred to other rescues.

Additional highlights from 2010 include Seattle Humane’s Foster Care Program, which provided a record-breaking 4,518 shelter animals with the critical care they needed to become healthy and adoptable – 1,500 more than last year! Our life-saving foster parents volunteered an astounding 40,224 days of care to underage puppies and kittens who required round-the-clock bottle feedings, senior pets who needed a break from shelter life and pets recovering from surgery.

Seattle Humane continued to stay at the forefront of the spay/neuter movement. In an effort to ensure that there is a loving home for every pet, we performed a record-breaking 2,000 public spay/neuter surgeries in 2010. Our annual Spay (& Neuter) Day for Cats was a huge success thanks to a grant for The Federation of Animal Care & Control Agencies, Washington State. In a single day, our veterinary team worked alongside volunteer veterinarians to complete more than 120 surgeries for low-income kitty owners. Thanks to a grant from PetSmart Charities® we also performed 769 free spay and neuter surgeries on Pit Bulls and Pit Bull mixes.

With continued support from the community, the Seattle Humane Society is prepared to lead the way in all things pet-related and to save even more animals’ lives in the year ahead.