In July of 2009, when the Board of Directors decided to change the way the Lynchburg Humane Society operated, they gave the staff until 2015 to achieve a save rate over 90%. This is a widely recognized benchmark used to define “no kill” status. The Board gave us real concrete goals such as increasing our adoption and return to owner rates and implementing spay/neuter programs. The Board also realized that we needed a new building to really reach our ultimate goal of No Kill for the Lynchburg Community. In 2009 we increased our save rate to 65% after only the first six months of our new no kill policy. In 2010 we reached an 84% save rate. This first 1½ years of progress should be compared to a 49% save rate in 2008. Then in 2011 we were so excited to reach a 90% save rate. However , we are always careful that we don’t claim that we are no kill because we often find ourselves making hard decisions on anima...