Salina animal services presents shelter data as board weighs no‑kill goal, disease, volunteers and funding

Salina animal services staff told the Salina Animal Control Advisory Board on a packed public‑comment night that the shelter’s 2024 intake and outcome numbers — particularly for cats — kept the combined live‑outcome rate below the 90% threshold often used to describe a “no‑kill” shelter, and that the department will appear at a city study session to present updated statistics.

The presentation, made by shelter staff and reviewed at the board’s Feb. 24 meeting, explained that a spike in feline disease (panleukopenia) and several animals that arrived severely ill or injured raised the shelter’s euthanasia and “died in care” counts for 2024. “If an animal comes in and it immediately tests positive and we euthanized right away, that goes towards those numbers,” a shelter staff member said during the presentation. Shelter staff also pointed to limited foster capacity for neonatal kittens and to multi‑shelter kennel‑cough outbreaks that constrained transfers.

The result, staff said, is that the dog live‑outcome rate met or exceeded the commonly cited 90% threshold (reported at about 95% for 2024), but combined cat and dog outcomes fell short. That shortfall prompted staff…