GREAT FALLS — The Great Falls Animal Shelter has recently earned an award that highlights its commitment to providing a second chance for every animal in its care.
Great Falls Animal Shelter Operations Manager Laramie Smovir explains the significance of this award.
"The big thing that this award says is that we don't euthanize for length of stay or space whenever possible. So, no-kill status, which in the United States is kind of this ambient word that just sort of flies out there that people know about, but they don't really understand."
The designation is awarded by Best Friends Animal Society, which provides this overview:
To achieve no-kill status, shelters must have at least a 90% live outcome rate. The Great Falls shelter boasts an impressive 95% rate, meaning that the vast majority of animals find homes or receive appropriate care. For a shelter to achieve what we consider no-kill, 90% of the cats and dogs coming into the shelter must be saved. Typically, no more than 10% of dogs and cats entering shelters are suffering from irreparable medical or behavioral issues that compromise their quality of life and prevent them from being rehomed, so that’s how we arrived at the 90% benchmark.
"For us, the rest of the animals that come in have extreme behavior or extreme health issues. And so it is better for that animal to let them go over the Rainbow Bridge," Smovir elaborates.
The shelter employs various strategies to place animals in loving homes, including adoption events, foster care, and partnerships with other shelters across the state.
These efforts are sometimes unique, like transporting certain breeds to areas where they are more likely to be adopted.
"On any given day, it may be that we run a flash adoption event because we're getting to the point that we are going to have to start making tough decisions that we don't want to make," Smovir says.
Receiving the designation not only honors the hard work of the shelter staff but also opens new doors.
"It does open up some opportunities for additional grant money," Smovir adds. "It opens up a lot of doors for additional donations to try and help pay for some of the other things that we've got happening here at the shelter."
For those in the community who want to help but aren’t ready to adopt, the shelter encourages fostering or volunteering.
Click here to see the current list of adoptable pets.
The Great Falls Animal Shelter is at 1010 25th Avenue NE. For more information, call 406-454-2276, or click here to visit the website.
