In Steven Ardary|March 14, 2021 at 5:12 pm EDT – Updated March 15 at 12:18 pm
NORTH CHARLESTON, SC (WCSC) – The Charleston Animal Society says it plans to turn South Carolina into a deathless state by 2024.
At the Charleston Animal Society’s 147th annual meeting on Sunday, they announced that their statewide “No Kill South Carolina” initiative now has a schedule and has been renamed “No Kill South Carolina 2024”.
Officials say the initiative is funded by a donation from the Petco Foundation. The foundation says that, with the goal in mind, it is doing a $ 1 million challenge.
“If organizations in South Carolina work together and reach the No Kill South Carolina goal by 2024 – the Petco Foundation will invest $ 1 million in the work of rescuing organizations across South Carolina,” said the President of the Petco Foundation , Susanne Kogut. “These funds can be used to support No Kill South Carolina!”
The Charleston Animal Society says animal shelters across the state have saved more than 500,000 animal lives since the start of No Kill in South Carolina six years ago.
“Our efforts with No Kill South Carolina over the past six years have made tremendous gains in the struggle to save animals in every corner of the state,” said Charleston Animal Society President and CEO Joe Elmore. “The trend shows that we can make this innovative initiative a reality by 2024.”
The shelter says “not killing” is a term used in animal welfare that refers to the goal of saving “all healthy and treatable dogs and cats, usually about 90%”.
“No Kill was introduced in the collective sense, as in the construction of a No Kill nation; however, some animal shelters adopted the term and self-proclaimed No Kill shelters to take advantage of fundraising, making the concept centered on shelters rather than community-centered, which has led to many divisions in the animal welfare community ”Said Elmore. “Unnecessary euthanasia, such as homelessness, illiteracy, hunger and other social issues are community issues, they are community issues that require everyone to work together to overcome it.”
The Charleston Animal Society says that when No Kill South Carolina was started, 19% of dogs and 47% of cats were euthanized in shelters across the state. Now, they say, the euthanasia rate for dogs has dropped to 8% and the euthanasia rate for cats has dropped to 18%.
“The progress is incredible, but we still have substantial work to do, especially to save more cats from euthanasia,” said Abigail Appleton, Program Director of No Kill Program in South Carolina, PMP, CAWA. “None of this would have been possible without the collaboration and incredible efforts of shelters across South Carolina.”
Appleton says the No Kill South Carolina 2024 challenge is a great way to get involved in the effort.
“Go to the local shelter and tell them that you would like to help. You can adopt, volunteer or donate and help all of us achieve this great achievement, ”said Appleton.
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