When Chico City Animal Shelter manager Tracy Mohr decided (http://www.newsreview.com/chico/felines-among-us/content?oid=8827912) to discontinue intake of healthy cats to the shelter, community members were redirected to other resources for solving problems and addressing concerns.

At the time of her decision, the Chico City Shelter was already doing relatively well for cats, with a euthanasia rate of 28 percent. While higher than ideal, this is substantially lower than most public shelters in California. However, after implementing alternatives to intake in February of 2013, euthanasia dropped even further to 22 percent for the following calendar year.

This was accomplished despite the fact that the shelter was now focused on admitting only the sick, injured, orphaned, and abused cats and kittens presenting some of the greatest challenges for care. Even more dramatic, the number of cats euthanized dropped from 527 to 88, representing a spectacular 83 percent reduction in euthanasia.

Free to Roam: A Small City’s New Policy that Saves Feline Lives and Tax Payer Money
(http://www.maddiesfund.org/Maddies_Institute/Articles/Free_to_Roam.html)