The Danville Area Humane Society, which has been under fire in recent years for its high euthanasia rates, recorded 1,870 animals euthanized in 2025 out of 3,184 animals taken in, for a rate of about 59%. This is lower than 2024’s rate of 65%.
Across all shelters in Virginia in 2025, the euthanasia rate was only about 9%, according to the VDACS custody reports so far.
These figures are based on self-reported numbers from each animal shelter in the state to the Virginia Department of Animal and Consumer Services. Shelters have until Jan. 31 to report their numbers.
The euthanasia rate at the Danville shelter has decreased slightly each year since 2023, when the shelter euthanized about 78% of its animals, a figure that was eight times the state average that year.
Paulette Dean, director of the Danville shelter, said that the 2025 euthanasia rate is even lower than 59% if animals that were euthanized for owners are removed from that figure.
The VDACS report does not include a specific figure for animals euthanized for owners. It does report that 43 animals died while in custody.
“We still believe that emphasis should be placed on other things,” Dean said, mentioning the shelter’s “No Birth, No Stray, No Neglect” program, which prioritizes spay and neuter assistance, microchipping and education.
The report also says that 224 animals were reclaimed by owners and 348 animals were adopted at the Danville shelter in 2025. An additional 603 were transferred to another Virginia shelter or rescue group.
The gradual decreases in euthanasia rates every year since 2023 reflect work at the shelter and in the community to boost animal life-saving.
Disproportionately high intake, open-admissions policy contribute to high death rates
| Year | Animal intake | Animals euthanized | Euthanasia rate |
| 2023 | 3,499 | 2,797 | 79% |
| 2024 | 3,362 | 2,213 | 65% |
| 2025 | 3,184 | 1,870 | 59% |
The city’s historically high euthanasia rates are partially because the Danville Area Humane Society is the only animal shelter in the city, and its animal intake is disproportionately high compared to the city’s population of 42,000.
In 2025, the Danville shelter took in 3,184 animals, while the public animal shelter in Fairfax County, with a population of 1.15 million, took in 5,472.
There are no private shelters in Danville to help shoulder the animal intake, though a Northern Virginia-based rescue organization called Homeward Trails opened a physical location in the city earlier this year.
Contributing to high intake, the Danville shelter also operates on an open-intake model, which means that it doesn’t turn away any animal regardless of space or resource constraints. It’s not uncommon for healthy animals to be euthanized at open-admission shelters because of these constraints.
On the other hand, limited-intake shelters can and do turn away animals, and typically reserve euthanasia as a last resort for animals that are terminally ill or are considered dangerous.
Danville’s shelter has been pressured by outside animal welfare organizations and by some residents to transition to a limited-intake model in an effort to lower euthanasia rates. After an impassioned clash with Best Friends, a national animal welfare nonprofit, in the fall of 2024, the Danville shelter doubled down on its open-intake model.
“They appear on our doorstep, and they have been turned down by other shelters,” Dean said in a 2024 interview. “What would happen to that animal if we turned them away?”
Still, even when compared to other open-intake shelters, Danville’s shelter far exceeds the state euthanasia rate. In 2025, about 13.5% of animals in Virginia’s municipal shelters, which are often open-intake, were euthanized, according to the VDACS custody reports so far.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has voiced support for Danville’s shelter, saying that the community bears part of the responsibility for lowering animal intake in a locality. PETA encourages people to adopt from their local shelters instead of buying from breeders and to spay and neuter their pets to bring down the number of animals in the community.
The organization also supports the open-intake sheltering model, contributing to a larger conversation in the sheltering world about which of these ideologies is the best approach and about who really bears the responsibility of caring for a community’s animals.
The Danville shelter has maintained consistent support from the city government throughout the criticism, and Dean said it has a reliable pool of donors and volunteers.
Other pockets of residents continue to be critical of the shelter, asking it to post more adoptable animals online, be more transparent and accept offers of resources and partnerships.