Regional Animal Services of King County (RASKC) continues to set the standard when it comes to saving animals’ lives. This year, more than 4,100 dogs, cats, and other animals in our care were adopted to new families or returned to their lost owner. Because of this amazing work, we expect to achieve another organizational milestone in 2019, reaching a live release rate for dogs and cats of 95%. This again puts RASKC in rare company for public, open-admission animal shelters in the United States.

The credit for this amazing achievement goes to our dedicated RASKC team of 44 staff and more than 800 volunteers, along with our many community partners. We’re driven to continually improve how we do our work, which in turn helps improve the lives of people and pets all over our region.

But we’re not going to rest on our laurels. We’re always challenging ourselves to learn, experiment, and grow. We’re building partnerships across our state with members of the Pet Alliance of Washington, which helps animal shelters learn best practices and creates strategic relationships for animal transfers for adoption, helping all from our shared experiences to improve pet save rates. We’re working with ASPCA (Northern Tier Shelter Initiative), the Best Friends Animal Society, the Humane Society of the United States, and other leading national groups to find the most promising practices from around the nation and incorporating those into our animal care and control program. And of course we’re always listening to the people right here in our region who generously support RASKC and its mission.

As we look ahead to 2020, we want to thank you for supporting RASKC this year and helping us make a positive impact on our community.