All Shelter Pets (NAPSA)—The lives of nearly 733,000 cats and dogs could be saved with the help of caring humans and an innovative Web-based platform introduced this week by Best Friends AnimalSociety. Envisioned as a tool to help animal lovers help their communities save more pets, the new community lifesaving dashboard combines groundbreaking data visualization technology with the most comprehensive data set on animal a o Experts say new technology can be used to moreeffectively target shelter resources and help save thousandsofpets. welfare ever published. Twoyears in the making, the tool crowdsources, validates and translates complex data about the dogs andcats in US. shelters. It brings an unprecedented level of transparency to the animal welfare movement, unlockingnew opportunities for saving pets by providing a detailed picture showing precisely—on a city, state and community level—where cats and dogs needto be saved. For the first time, anyone with a smartphone or computer will be able to easily access his or her community's snapshot of how manycats and dogs needto be saved andfindtools to help individual shelters save more pets. The organization used independent research, government data and even FOIA requests to create the most comprehensive data set on animal welfare ever published. Best Friends CEOJulie Castle says the investment in data was necessary to achieve the organization’s goal of bringing the whole country no-kill by 2025. “Up until two years ago, we didn't even know how manyshelters existed? she said. “How can you possibly save all the animalsif you don’t even know how manyneedto besaved? “With this data in hand, our goalto save every savable pet by 2025is finally within reach,’ Castle said. Toexplore the community lifesaving dashboard,visit BestFriends.org/2025.
