There are only so many ways a shelter can manage its population of animals given the fixed physical space they have to house them. (If you haven’t seen our blog post about how animal shelters manage their populations, you can read it here.) One of the ways shelters balance their intake with outcomes is the euthanasia of dogs deemed to be less likely to be adopted. It’s a sad, gut-wrenching thing to think about, and the community plays a critical role in keeping more dogs alive.

In the first of a two-part series, National Canine assisted our local CBS station in their story revealing the rise in euthanasia rates and the reasons for the trend. Watch the video here and part two of the series here.