Pet shelters facing critical levels nationwide: how one KC shelter is avoiding crisis

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — The Humane Society of Greater Kansas City is a non-profit animal shelter and care clinic that first opened back in 1912.

Their mission is to unite shelter animals with a forever home and remove barriers to affordable pet care for their owners.

“They come in, we do what we can and get them out into their permanent forever homes,” Humane Society of Greater Kansas City’s President and Chief Executive Officer Sydney Mollentine said. “We do that by assessing everything that we have in our adoption process and reducing barriers as much as possible, so people want to come and adopt.”

According to Hill’s Pet Nutrition’s latest report on shelter pet adoptions, 2024 marks the fourth consecutive year that shelters across the U.S. are facing levels at or over capacity.

Three years ago, the shelter was all too familiar with that reality but have since been able to shorten the average length of stay for animals from 257 days to a 12-day average.

“We want to find ways to say yes, please take this animal home. It’s going to be a perfect fit for you,” Mollentine said.”

She says adopting and caring for that perfect fit can be challenging.

According to Hill’s Pet Nutrition report, financial concerns, access to veterinary care, and housing restrictions are just some of the barriers that families are facing.

“63 percent of Americans say affordable vet care is a huge deterrent for adopting,” Mollentine said. “It’s a struggle to want to adopt when you know the price that it’s going to take to go into the care of that pet.”

To offset those challenges, the non-profit keeps prices at its affordable care clinic low and offer pet adoptions starting at $10.

Mollentine says removing those common barriers to shelter adoptions keeps the shelter from overcapacity and makes adding a furry companion more attainable for families in the metro.

“We look at every piece of our organization and determine what can we do to make edits here, changes here, policy changes here to better serve our people and our pets within the city.”

For more information on the shelter and care clinic, click here.

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