Near the end of 2025, Joplin Humane Society reached a 90% save rate for the first time in its history, according to a January 2026 feature by Best Friends Animal Society. The milestone followed changes to how the Missouri shelter managed intake and helped people keep pets—not a single program or a percentage alone. Executive director Connie Andrews describes a workplace that moved from dread toward greater hope and staff ownership.
What no-kill means—and what Joplin’s 90% milestone does not mean
Best Friends Animal Society defines no-kill as “saving every dog and cat in a shelter who can be saved, accounting for community safety and good quality of life for pets.” The organization presents a 90% save rate as a benchmark, while emphasizing that no-kill is more than reaching a percentage at one point in time.
The 90% figure is a milestone reported by Best Friends, not an independently audited rate in the available account. Best Friends also says two out of three shelters are no-kill and that 77% of U.S. shelters have reached a save rate of at least 90% for at least a year since 2016; its feature does not provide the underlying datasets or methodology for those broader figures. Best Friends is an animal welfare organization that advocates for no-kill practices, a perspective worth keeping in mind when interpreting its account.
Why the shelter needed a different approach
Andrews says Joplin’s previous approach left the shelter under intense pressure. In her account, the shelter euthanized around 65% of cats picked up outdoors because staff could not return them to where they were found and had nowhere else to send them. That figure describes the past situation as Andrews recounts it; the feature does not present it as an independently audited rate.
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In February 2024, as the city contract came up for renewal, Andrews says the city would not initially agree to requested policy changes involving surrendered pets and outdoor strays. She contacted Best Friends for help understanding the contract and local rules before meeting with city officials. The feature reports that the contract changed; by the time of the interview, the shelter had been working under the new contract for a year.
How Joplin changed intake and support
Scheduling intake conversations
The shelter began scheduling intake, starting with owner surrenders. Instead of treating every request as an immediate transfer into the shelter, staff could talk with the owner about the situation, consider whether a pet might stay home with temporary help, or arrange a later opening. The feature describes managing intake and offering alternatives where feasible—not a blanket refusal to take animals in crisis.
Helping pets stay with their families
When keeping a pet at home was possible, the shelter could offer practical assistance such as food, crates, collars, vaccines, and behavior help. Those resources addressed immediate barriers that might otherwise lead an owner to surrender an animal. The account does not isolate the impact of any one form of assistance, so it should be understood as part of a wider change in how the shelter responded to people and pets.
Working with community partners
Joplin’s efforts extended beyond the shelter. The feature names the Salvation Army and Lafayette House among organizations involved in support for people experiencing homelessness with pets and foster care for pets belonging to people fleeing domestic abuse. The shelter also worked with foster families and reached out to area agencies. Andrews said Joplin was exploring ways to help people whose local shelters did not accept pets; the feature describes that as an area under consideration, not a completed service.
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What changed for shelter staff
Andrews describes giving staff more ownership of intake decisions, including the authority to make some decisions without waiting for her. She says that greater responsibility changed the workplace atmosphere: “All that dread changed to excitement, and it’s not just me.” The quote captures Andrews’s account of the staff’s experience; the feature does not report a formal survey or workforce measurement.
The story’s “from dread to joy” framing is therefore best understood through the changes Andrews describes: fewer decisions treated as automatic transfers, more practical options for families, partnerships outside the shelter, and more staff authority. The account does not establish that every staff member or community partner experienced the shift in the same way.
What other shelters can learn from the case
Joplin’s story is a single-shelter case study, not a comparison of tested interventions. It offers no basis for ranking scheduled intake, pet-retention assistance, foster care, or staff decision-making as individually most effective. Instead, it shows how these approaches were combined in one community as the shelter changed its contract and operations.
Quick Recap
- Look for avoidable shelter entry: A conversation and timely practical help may offer an alternative when a family wants to keep its pet.
- Match support to the situation: Food, equipment, behavior assistance, and temporary foster care serve different needs; what is feasible depends on local capacity.
- Build partnerships around gaps: Work with agencies and foster families when people’s housing or safety circumstances make keeping a pet difficult.
- Pair intake management with welfare and safety: Scheduling can help manage pressure, but decisions still need to account for urgent situations, animal welfare, and community safety.
- Give staff workable authority: Andrews’s account links greater staff ownership to a more hopeful workplace, while leaving the exact effects unmeasured.
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