A Letter from LifeLine's CEO
We must work to get better, to expand the capacity of our teams, and we turn to our community to expand its capacity – to help get animals out of the shelter faster and better support the need that is pouring through the front door. We believe we are all working towards that same lifesaving goal, in spite of the challenges it brings."
A Letter from LifeLine's CEO
I want to take this opportunity to reflect on the incredible progress and successes we’ve had as an organization and community, even in the face of seemingly insurmountable challenges. Over the last year we have increased services and saved more lives. And we also struggled with untenable overpopulation in our shelters.
It is no secret that the DeKalb County animal shelter has been beset by enormous challenges stemming from sheer overcrowding. We know firsthand that housing over 700 animals in a building too small to handle that volume is never ideal and often heartbreaking. Our teams have been in the trenches for over ten years, fighting in these shelters for every possible positive outcome for the pets that come through our doors.
Under no uncertain terms, LifeLine Animal Project remains committed and dedicated to placing and saving as many healthy and treatable animals as possible.
- Intake has increased by 17%, and an astounding 8,943 animals have entered the shelter. 4,667 pets have been adopted, 565 pets have gone to rescue partners, 1,268 pets were transferred to LifeLine’s private shelter and 1,058 pets were returned to their homes.
- Through fundraising, LifeLine provided nearly $1 million to directly support DeKalb County shelter operations, including: emergency veterinary services, medical expenses, additional staffing, spay/neuter support, and community services. Whenever the shelter operations exceed the contract budgets, LifeLine chooses to provide the extra resources to meet the need. We are doing this work because we believe we owe the animals their lives.
- LifeLine has more than doubled the capacity of the shelter by supporting over 900 animals currently living in foster homes.
- At its own expense, LifeLine launched a partnership with VCA Animal Hospitals to provide more immediate medical care for DCAS pets in foster homes.
- DeKalb County joined forces with LifeLine this year and provided additional funding for free pet food banks, over 500 free spay/neuter procedures, and free vaccines and microchipping offered weekly through LifeLine’s mobile vet clinic.
- DeKalb County is funding the “pet neighborhood,” to open in 2025, which will expand the humane capacity of the main shelter by 120 dogs.
- Over the last decade of managing the DeKalb County shelter, LifeLine has decreased euthanasia by 72% and increased adoptions by 615%. In 2024, according to the data maintained by Shelter Animals Count, LifeLine’s DeKalb County shelter exceeded the national average for pet adoptions reported by all public shelters by 5%.
- In the last two years, LifeLine has transferred 2,209 animals – about 13% of all intake – from the DeKalb shelter to LifeLine’s private shelter, at no cost to DeKalb County and with no funding from the DeKalb County contract revenue.
- DeKalb’s shelter does not provide enough kennel space for the number of animals who need help. Our community and our teams vehemently reject the idea of killing healthy and treatable pets as the primary answer to shelter overcrowding. Still, we are faced with intractable overcrowding and must reduce the population gradually over time as we work toward more sustainable solutions. Euthanasia decisions are heartbreakingly difficult, and their result is irreversible.
- The sheer volume of animals living in the shelter creates a number of problems, including the stressful environment for the animals, difficulty in cleaning, exposure to diseases, and animals not getting enough time outside.
- The problem is complex and multi-layered. Putting the animals’ lives first does not cause overcrowding, nor can killing them be the only solution. The economy, financial insecurity, a lack of affordable housing, breed restrictions, limited access to affordable veterinary care and spay/neuter resources, and the fact that people are choosing to turn to breeders (both backyard and beyond) instead of shelters when looking for pets — all contribute to the rising influx of pets into the shelters and the diminished public desire to adopt them.
- The DeKalb County Law Department continues to work expeditiously toward the release of dogs being held for court cases, but the situation remains dire. At the end of December 2024, 82 dogs in the shelter — occupying nearly 40% of the shelter’s originally designed capacity — were being held by law for court cases, some of them for over a year.
- The challenges of shelter overcrowding, coupled with a shortage of veterinary professionals, are felt nationwide. In 2024, most every city or county shelter in the United States is working beyond its capacity for care.
- Caring for animals is very difficult work, particularly in facilities over capacity, and our teams struggle. Mistakes are sometimes made, but we are always actively striving to improve operations. We are doing our best to make the most of a building not big enough to meet the needs of its community while still prioritizing the lives of the animals in our care.
- We have committed to reaching a more humane capacity through a slow and steady approach of lowering our shelter population to avoid killing dozens of animals each week for space. By publicly stating our target population goal and reducing the goal incrementally each week, we have been able to get the shelter dog population down by 120 dogs in only two months while still limiting the use of euthanasia for population control, despite increases in intake.
- For the animals in the shelter, we have reduced the average length of time they stay in the shelter by 40% over the last two years. On average, excluding court cases, dogs who leave the shelter have spent less than 30 days there, and cats find placement in less than 14 days.
- We are enhancing our staffing structure in 2025 to increase accountability and fortify training for staff at every level of the organization. This will help expand our team’s capacity to better care for the greater number of animals coming into the shelter as well as improve the experience for all visitors to the shelter.
- We are adding additional staff to improve customer service and wait times.
- We’ve expanded support for our volunteer and foster programs and have restructured the programs to provide more consistency across all locations and more support for volunteers and teams at each location.
- We will continue to focus on root causes of pet homelessness:
- Acting as the largest spay/neuter provider in the state, offering free and low-cost options for pet owners;
- Providing affordable and accessible veterinary care, supporting 7,000 pets each year through our Healthy Pets events, and offering including mobile veterinary care throughout the community;
- Partnering with DeKalb County to provide free resources and support for pet owners in need to keep pets and people together.
Caring for animals in a shelter is always messy, often stressful, and sometimes heartbreaking. We ask for your support, compassion, patience, and a little bit of grace to know that we are striving to do our best with the resources available. Even as we struggle to work beyond the capacity of our shelters and, at times, of our teams, we accept the challenge to grow our capacity, expand our resources, strengthen our teams and our resolve. Some suggest, even insist, that we euthanize more to reduce the shelter population quickly. We do not believe and cannot accept that we can or should kill our way to a solution. We must work to get better, to expand the capacity of our teams, and we turn to our community to expand its capacity – to help get animals out of the shelter faster and better support the need that is pouring through the front door. We believe we are all working towards that same lifesaving goal, in spite of the challenges it brings. I promise you we are up for the challenge. It’s a new year. Are you in?
Sincerely,
Rebecca Guinn
Founder & CEO
