SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (The Daily Dish) — Thursday, March 2, marks International Rescue Cat Day, and Best Friends Animal Society, a leading animal welfare organization, is celebrating a major milestone in cat lifesaving during 2022. The organization is working towards ending the killing of cats and dogs in America’s shelters by 2025.

According to estimates, around 2.3 million cats entered the U.S shelter system in 2021, and approximately 240,000 of them did not make it out alive. However, there was an 8% reduction in the number of cats needlessly dying in shelters in 2022, which is a significant improvement.

Best Friends Animal Society wants to continue reducing the number of cats dying in the shelter system by emphasizing the importance of the community’s role in cat lifesaving. There are both indoor and outdoor cats, and how they are dealt with can help with overall lifesaving. Currently, around 79 million cats live in homes in the US, while many feral and outdoor healthy cats live outdoors.

To keep saving cats from being killed in shelters due to a lack of space, Best Friends is asking the public to trap, spay or neuter, vaccinate, and return cats that are doing well outside to their original location. This will create room for lost, abandoned, and surrendered cats in shelters.

If you are considering adopting a cat or kitten, Best Friends Animal Society recommends adoption. By adopting, you are saving two lives – the life of the cat you adopt and clearing space for another cat to be taken in by a shelter or rescue group.