MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Memphis Animal Services says it set a record for pet adoptions in 2018, with 7,083 animals from the shelter finding new homes.
The 7,000th and 7,001st adoptions of 2018 were brother kittens, Rudy and Ricco, who were adopted on Dec. 28 by the Miles family. The shelter’s goal for the year was 7,000.
The city’s animals shelter also set a record with an all-time high 88 percent save rate.
“7,000 was a stretch goal, and we honestly weren’t sure if we would hit it this year, but we wanted to try anyway and see if we could save more lives than we thought possible,” said Alexis Pugh, MAS director. “But thanks to so much wonderful support from our community, we hit the goal on December 28 and still had several days to add to it.”
The increase in adoptions came in a year when intake increased by 8 percent. Shelter officials partly attributed the increase in adoptions to an $18 adoption special during the month of December.
MAS ended 2018 with a save rate of 88.2 percent, up from 84.8 percent in 2017. In addition to 3,911 public adoptions and 3,172 rescue transfers in 2018, the shelter also reunited 629 lost pets with their families, for a total of 7,712 this year. Overall euthanasia was reduced by 21 percent.