In a Jan. 11 memo to Austin City Council, Tawny Hammond, chief officer for the city department, said the shelter reached its highest life-saving rate in the city's history despite a "challenging year of weather events" that caused the shelter's animal population to sharply rise.
It is the fifth consecutive year that the city reached the 90 percent benchmark for keeping animals sheltered at its facilities alive. Euthanasia is reserved for terminally ill animals or those deemed public threats.
Hammond thanked volunteers, foster families, and the office's rescue and shelter partners for their contributions.
"In times of space crisis, the community stepped up like never before, opening their hearts and homes to providing temporary safe places for pets in need, proving that no-kill is a community ethic," she said in the memo.
Here are some numbers to know from the annual report:
Average of 96.4 percent live outcomes
The Austin Animal Center kept alive 95 percent of the cats and 98 percent of the dogs in its shelter system in fiscal year 2015-16. This includes companion animals adopted, transferred or returned to their owner and excludes those court-ordered or owner-surrendered for euthanasia.
7,886 pets were adopted in 2016
That is a record for the shelter and increase of 6.8 percent from the previous year.
4,715 pets were taken by rescue partners
One of the shelter's rescue partners, Austin Pets Alive, took 3,002 of the shelter's most challenging medical and behavioral cases, according to the report.
2,760 animals were returned to their homes
The city's animal protection officers returned 700 of those dogs to their owners without having to take them to the shelter.
795 volunteers
The center's nearly 800 volunteers contributed 53,797 hours of service, the equivalent of 26 full-time staff positions.
900 foster families
Animal foster families housed 2,500 pets, 65 percent of which were adopted directly from the foster home. Fosters contributed 81,830 hours, representing 39 full-time positions.
