A new administration came on board, revamped all the out-dated policies, and dedicated to lifesaving in September 2013. KCHA’s save rate climbed to 63% in the few short months of change that year.

For 2015, our focus shifted beyond quantity of care to quality. We shifted our focus to programs like TNR, pet retention, behavior evaluations, and enrichment. This focus on quality of animal care actually helped further our life-saving efforts.

We welcomed Julie Hypes as our Animal Behaviorist, providing behavior modification training to dogs at risk of euthanasia. Daily playgroups, in-kennel enrichment, toys, and treats help pets overcome kennel-related stress. Happy pets are healthy pets! The result? Less than 1% of dogs admitted to KCHA are euthanized for aggression.

As recognition of our 2016 flood relief efforts, we were honored to receive the Paul Jolly Compassion Award. The Lovey has, and continues to be, a shining beacon and reminder that we can save lives – no matter the adversity set before us.

Our public, low-cost spay/neuter & wellness clinic, Fix Charleston, opened. To date they have performed over 16,000 surgeries, and seen over 20,000 pets for their wellness needs.

Our Care-a-Van took its maiden voyage! The Care-a-Van is equipped to bring KCHA’s lifesaving services to the hills and hollers who need them most – spay/neuter, adoptions, vaccine and wellness clinics, cruelty investigations, and disaster response.

Our local Petco invited us on to be an in-store adoption partner with their cat habitats! This experience, which we call “The Petco Penthouse,” has been amazing for our cats. We were able to reduce length of stay, reach more adopters, and share the love of our cats with our local Petco store associates. Together, we adopted almost 80 cats from the habitats of our Petco store, along with additional pets adopted from adoption weekends!

June of 2019, we were bestowed a phenomenal grant award from The Petco Foundation for $750,000, dispersed over the next 3 years in installments.

TALK ABOUT LIFE-CHANGING FOR LIFE-SAVING!
While we are so thankful for the investment, there is still more work to be done - we buckled down to make those precious dollars stretch as far as possible.

We welcomed our new Executive Director, Bethany Hively! Beginning to get back to "normal," we were thrilled to be able to be able to be in our community once again! Attending events like baseball games, Live on the Levee, and other community functions - we were excited to see animal lovers supporting shelter pets!

We received a $25,000 grant from Best Friends Animal Society to expand our contagious disease ward, allowing us to increase our save rate!

In another Hurricane Relief effort (this time Hurricane Ida), KCHA traveled to Tennessee to meet displaced shelter pets evacuating from Mississippi. We transported 26 pets, 15 of which went on with other rescue organizations in an immense effort to help these animals.

Ended the year with a 91% Live Release Rate!