Lynchburg Humane Society Blog

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 animals that some might say are treatable.   This is a

China was given support from two humane societies and two vets. Synergy is defined as two or more things functioning together to produce a result not independently obtainable.  Without synergy we could not do the great work that we do.  We already have great synergy with the community at large but we have begun to work with other humane groups in the area in order to increase our Synergy Network of friends.   Here are a few stories of how we have been working with our partners and groups in 2012 that resulted in saving the lives of pets that may not have been saved otherwise.  First let me tell you about China.  Her original owners lived in Lynchburg and China found herself at the Lynchburg Humane Society when she got away from her owners.  As a result they re-homed her to a new family in Campbell County and China once again got away. Unfortunately this time she was hit by a car.  China arrived at Campbell County Animal Control for her mandatory stray period.  In hopes of getting h