Seagoville is a suburb of Dallas, Texas, and has about 15,000 inhabitants. The Seagoville Animal Shelter, a municipal shelter, handles animal control and sheltering for the city.
The shelter published its statistics for 2011 online, reporting a 97% live release rate. The shelter’s intake for 2011 was 568 cats and dogs. Most of the animals — 327 — left the shelter through adoption. The shelter transferred 192 cats and dogs to rescues and returned 47 to their owners. Twelve dogs and 3 cats were euthanized, and those euthanasias were for reportedly for illness, injury, or aggression.
The shelter director e-mailed me the statistics for 2012, and they show a 98% live release rate with an intake of 798 dogs and cats. There were 537 adoptions, 76 returned to owner, 124 sent to rescue, and TNR for 19 feral cats. There were no owner-requested euthanasias reported. The number of animals who died or were lost in shelter care was 12, and with that number included as part of euthanasias, the live release rate was 97%. This video describes how Seagoville was able to achieve its high live release rate.
In addition to taking in strays, the Seagoville shelter counsels owners to try to prevent surrender. The shelter accepts owner surrenders only if there is no alternative placement available.
Seagoville, TX, is counting in the Running Totals as a 90%+ community.