529,733 and counting! Join the AmPA! Shelter Animals Count Coalition

Every year, American Pets Alive! teaches thousands of animal shelter directors, staff, volunteers and advocates how to save more animal lives. In 2019, at the AmPA! Conference alone, we hosted hundreds of attendees who together represented 33 states and 127 unique cities and communities.

These numbers got us thinking: how many animals were represented at the 2019 AmPA! conference? We set out to do the math and ran into a problem, we couldn’t

count every animal, because we were missing the most important information we needed -- your animal data!

Join our Shelter Animals Count Coalition and help us solve the problem of homeless dogs and cats going uncounted! The 53 shelters that did publicly report their data had a total intake of 529,733 cats and dogs in 2018! That’s over half of a million cats and dogs! With your help, we can learn how many more dogs and cats were represented. 

Follow these simple steps and you’ll be a part of the American Pets Alive! Shelter Animals Count Coalition, in no time:

1. If you are not yet signed up for Shelter Animals Count visit shelteranimalscount.org/register

2. Once you register your organization, or if you are already registered, log in to your account, select Manage Coalitions, and search for American Pets Alive!

3. If you get stumped, you’re in good hands, Shelter Animals Count has some of the most helpful how-to videos, ever. Here is a video that will walk you through the simple steps to register your organization.

4. For more information about data entry, watch this how-to video on data reporting.

5. If you have any other questions, email us at [email protected].

Much of what we teach at American Pets Alive! and in our Maddie’s Lifesaving Academy relies on counting and data. For example, we show shelters and rescues wh

at they can learn from looking at their animal intake and outcome numbers, like which groups of animals need their help the most. We illustrate what they might gain from sharing this information with the public, like community support through an increase in adoption and foster. And we use data to teach shelters and rescues, that through identifying gaps and trends within their data, they will more easily identify the next steps to increase lifesaving in their communities.

Join our Shelter Animals Count Coalition and the American Pets Alive! mission to end the needless killing of dogs and cats in animal shelters. Help us to create a world where every homeless animal counts.

Here are some more good reasons to collect and analyze your data using Shelter Animals Count:

• Grant and community funders ask for this information, and many ask for you to be a SAC participant
• Track lifesaving progress and success in your organization and community
• Build trust and ask for help by engaging your community through transparent shelter practices
• Help us in our efforts to ensure that every animal that enters into a shelter is counted

Shelter Animals Count How-to Resource