Atlanta, Georgia, was known for years as a city with a very low live release rate. Rebecca Guinn decided to reform it. She gave up her lucrative career as an attorney and formed a non-profit called LifeLine Animal Project, which she built up until it was able to take over the animal sheltering contracts in Fulton and DeKalb counties in 2013. Together, the population of the two counties, which contain the city of Atlanta, is over 1.5 million. Here is a link to an NPR interview that was done in July 2014 with Guinn.
Fulton and DeKalb have seen considerable progress since then. Lineline has reported that its live release rate for the Fulton County shelter is just under 90%. LifeLine previously reported that the save rate in DeKalb was at 86%. It’s looking like both shelters are going to finish 2014 in the 80-90% range. Both shelters are open-admission municipal shelters that, between them, take in about 50 animals per day every day. The population of the two counties is over 1.5 million people.
Fulton and DeKalb counties are counted in the Running Totals as 80%+ communities.