2023 Statistics

Awards

Nonprofit Connect Philly Awards

• Social Media Campaign – Jolene
• Best Short Video – Giving Tuesday 2022
• Best Informational Brochure
• Event Invitation – Love Finds a Way 10th Anniversary Gala

The Pitch Best of Kansas City

• Best Place to Adopt a Pet
• Best Fundraising Event (runner up) – Love Finds a Way

Year in Review

2023 a year like no other at KC Pet Project – with our shelter providing care for a record 16,270 animals!  Across the country, shelters experienced another year of having too many animals and not enough adopters — especially for dogs. The current national trend shows dog adoptions down from 2022, and unfortunately shelters across the country saw increased numbers of dogs arriving in 2023.  Here at KC Pet Project, we also took in a record-breaking number of dogs in 2023 and continued to struggle with over-capacity issues for dogs all year – sharing our challenges and our stories with our community to encourage pet adoption, fostering, volunteering, and support to help us keep more pets and families together.

Housing costs and barriers to affordable and accessible veterinary care were two of the main reasons KCMO residents surrendered their pets last year – and our Animal Services Team saw a 300% increase in the number of calls for animals being abandoned due to evictions in 2023.   We saw a 23% increase in stray animals brought in by the public – resulting in the largest number of stray dogs and cats entering our shelter in Kansas City’s history. 

It was a tough year for our team and for our community, but our incredible lifesaving team at KCPP came through once again to help more pets and families in need than ever before.  Despite the continued increase in the number of animals arriving and the length of stay increasing for dogs, we still achieved a 94.3% Save Rate in December (91.8% dogs, 97.3% cats) and a 93.4% Save Rate for 2023! 

Here are a few more of the notable ways we impacted our community in 2023:

• 15,631 animals came into our shelter (8,420 dogs, 6,888 cats, 323 other animals).  This was the largest number of dogs to ever enter our city’s shelter in one year – total numbers cared for 16,270 (most in Kansas City history!)
• 10,384 pets were adopted by new families – including 2,049 cats/kittens that were adopted through our Petco store Cat Habitats
• 66,539 volunteer hours of service were given – a 38% increase – from 2,307 volunteers – valued at $1,899,013.07!
• 2,814 news stories or broadcast mentions with a reach of 4.5 billion people – a 200% increase in total reach!  
• 6,049 pets went to foster care (3,579 dogs, 2,414 cats, and 56 other animals) – an all-time high and a 18% increase over last year.
• 874 feral/community cats received low cost spay/neuter services and 354 reclaimed dogs received free spay/neuter services through our shelter’s vet clinic.
• 9,438 surgeries and 15,605 veterinary exams were performed in our Vet Clinic, and 252 puppies were treated in our Parvovirus Ward.
• We had 85,807 calls to/from our Pet Support Center!

Families across our community benefited from our programs and services in 2023, including 4,621 local families with 8,173 pets that were supported by our Keep ‘Em Together, KC initiatives (a 51% increase from last year).  We shared 119 tons of donated pet foods and 26,378 pet supplies with 12 community agencies and 3,490 KCMO households with 6,851 pets.  And our Return-to-Home team reunited a record 1,999 lost pets with their families.  

Our Animal Services Division saw increases across the board in 2023 as well.  Officers travelled 157,175 miles working 21,626 case activities, investigating 2,395 cases of animal cruelty, impounding 3,396 animals, and our dispatchers handled 52,534 calls to/from our Animal Services Division.

• 762 criminal citations for violations of the Kansas City municipal code were issued in 2023.   The top five most issued citations in 2023 were for animal neglect (inadequate care for animals), failing to spay/neuter, failing to obtain a city license, dogs running at large, and animals creating a public nuisance.
• In 2023 we worked cooperatively with the Jackson County Prosecutors Office and the Kansas City Police Department to create a referral process for state and felony-level animal cruelty cases. This unprecedented accomplishment has allowed us to submit a total of 7 animal cruelty/abuse cases in 2023 for state-level prosecution.
• The number of dogs declared Dangerous or Potentially Dangerous by our Animal Services Division was at an all-time high in 2023.  All addresses where declared dangerous or potentially dangerous dogs reside are monitored by our Animal Services Division for on-going compliance with mandatory municipal code requirements.  In 2023, eleven (11) court citations were issued to residents for failing to comply with those requirements.

We couldn’t do this without your support! Please consider a gift to KC Pet Project to help us continue our important work in Kansas City in 2024.