Reporting

Saving Lives, One Tail at a Time

Friends of Detroit Animal Care & Control (FoDACC) supports the city shelter acting as a safe haven for animals in need, ensuring their well-being, and maximizing live release rates. Our commitment lies in helping our furry friends find loving homes and advocating for their rights. Explore our efforts, understand live outcomes at the shelter, and learn about the difficult decisions the staff at DACC make to ensure the best possible life for every animal in their care.

FoDACC’s primary goal is to help the shelter 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 the shelter. Live outcomes include heartwarming stories of reunions with their owners, successful adoptions into loving families, placement in temporary foster homes, and transfers to other shelters and rescues. Each live outcome represents a second chance at life, a testament to the compassion and dedication of the shelter 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 the 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 the shelter staff to make the difficult choice of euthanasia to make room for new intakes.
You can be a part of our mission to help support the shelter 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 help DACC increase live release rates, provide a better future for 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.