The Ponca City Board of Commissioners approved a resolution to establish a goal for The Northern Oklahoma Regional Animal Care Facility as a No-Kill Operation by December 31, 2025.

The No-Kill 2025 movement by the Best Friends Animal Society has a goal to put an end to the killing of healthy animals in shelters across the country. This means that 90% of dogs and cats leave shelters alive either via rescue, adoption or through the owners.

Animal Control in Ponca City has been moving towards this goal for sometime now and this was a formal declaration of such. This is a collaboration between Northern Oklahoma Human Society and local municipal shelters to decrease unnecessary euthanasias in the community.

This also helps the Northern Oklahoma Humane Society and other rescues as they work towards grant funding.

In 2020, Animal Control were at 84% release on dogs and 43% on cats. In the first quarter of 2021, 91% of dogs were released and around 54-55% on cats.

Overall the number of animals in the facility has been reduced.

“What an amazing week for Ponca City’s animals,” said Chuck Greenwood, past President of the Northern Oklahoma Humane Society. “The people in Ponca City are a voice for homeless pets and all at-risk animals and the city commission made a huge statement tonight! This is what we all need to do! This kind of change does not occur within the silos of city or the Humane Society. These miracles happen through the work of coalitions. Together we will do what we could not do alone.”