The Shelter Exchange is offering at no-cost to rescue groups, shelters and animal welfare organizations what is being billed as a “collaborative software application.” The mission is to reduce the euthanasia rate for shelters, through improved strategies and promoting better cooperation between local shelters and area rescue groups.

The Shelter Exchange – out of Raleigh, NC – seems to be taking the right approach, even in stating on its website that – “Animal euthanasia is a complex problem.”

On occasion, I’m seeing some people blame it all on the shelters or on some other single aspect of the problem. The blame lies largely on the people and entities who are creating the problem – people who refuse to spay or neuter and allow their pets to breed into the homeless numbers, puppy mills, greyhound racing, etc …

With the software, shelters and other organizations can manage daily tasks and get the word out on their websites about about pets in need.

I’m going to check more into this system. You can learn more at ShelterExchange.org. I hope this is another step toward greatly reducing euthanasia rates for homeless pets.

An article about Shelter Exchange posted on the Yahoo! Finance website notes ASPCA numbers that estimate “approximately 5 million to 7 million companion animals enter animal shelters nationwide every year, and approximately 3 million to 4 million are euthanized.“