Reporting

Saving Lives, One Tail at a Time

Friends of Detroit Animal Care & Control (FoDACC) is dedicated to providing a safe haven for animals in need, ensuring their well-being, and maximizing live release rates. Our commitment lies in finding forever homes for our furry friends and advocating for their rights. Explore our efforts, understand live outcomes, and learn about the difficult decisions we make to ensure the best possible life for every animal in our care.

  • FoDACC’s primary goal is to achieve high live release rates. Live release rates are determined by the number of animals with live outcomes divided by the total number of animals that come into our shelter. Live outcomes include heartwarming stories of reunions with their owners, successful adoptions into loving families, placement in foster homes, and transfers to partner shelters and rescues. Each live outcome represents a second chance at life, a testament to the compassion and dedication of our staff, volunteers, and supporters.

  • While Detroit Animal Care & Control (DACC) and FoDACC strive to save as many lives as possible, there are unfortunate circumstances where euthanasia becomes a necessary, albeit heartbreaking, decision. These decisions are made with careful consideration and are never taken lightly. Decisions about euthanasia are made by DACC staff, and not by FoDACC. Here are the reasons for euthanasia at DACC:

    • Public Safety: Animals that pose a threat to public safety, displaying aggressive behavior that cannot be rehabilitated, are humanely euthanized to protect our community.

    • Untreatable Injuries or Sickness: Animals suffering from severe, untreatable injuries or terminal illnesses, where the prognosis is poor and the animal is in pain, are compassionately euthanized to end their suffering.

    • Capacity Constraints: As Detroit’s municipal shelter, DACC is required to take in all stray pets reported by the public and hold them for a certain period of time. This sometimes leads us to make the difficult choice of euthanasia to make room for new intakes.

  • You can be a part of our mission to save lives. The simplest way to help is to spay/neuter your own pets, make sure they have proper identification, and keep them healthy, loved, and safe at home. Also consider adoption, volunteering your time, fostering a pet, or supporting us through donations. Your contributions make an enormous impact. By working together, we can increase live release rates, provide a better future for our animals, and create a community where every pet has a loving home.

    Join us in our journey to make a difference. Together, we can transform the lives of these animals and create a brighter, more compassionate world for the pets and people of Detroit.

2020-2023 Annual Recaps

Infographic showingInforgraphic showing key data points from 2023
Inforgraphic showing key data points from 2022

Infographic showing key data points from 2021

Infographic showing key data points from 2020

Live Release Rate by Month and Year

2024

2024 average live release rate:

2023

2023 average live release rate: 66.8%

2022

2022 average live release rate: 77.4%

2021

2021 average live release rate: 89.5%

2020

2020 average live release rate: 91.4%

2019

2019 average live release rate: 76.3%