Notify the network
A shelter or rescue gives licensed Colorado organizations verifiable notice at least three open days before euthanasia.
HB24-1114 · Ready for a stronger return
The Colorado Rescue ActOne more chance.Thousands more lives.
Before a healthy or treatable pet is killed, give Colorado’s licensed shelters and rescues time to say yes.
A straightforward safeguard for the animals who can still be saved.
Quick answer
What is the Colorado Rescue Act?
It is a proposed Colorado law that would require brief, verifiable notice before a healthy or treatable shelter pet is euthanized, giving a qualified, PACFA-licensed shelter or rescue time to accept custody. It preserves immediate euthanasia for irremediable suffering and carefully defined public-safety exceptions.
Colorado has room to choose local lifesaving.
25,103dogs and cats transferred into Colorado in 2025
12,393reported non-live dog and cat outcomes in 2025
See the data 01
Why now
Colorado is closer than it looks
We do not need to rebuild the whole system.
Colorado already has a large, licensed network of shelters and rescues, a pet-loving public, and enough placement demand to bring tens of thousands of dogs and cats in from other states. The Rescue Act asks that a small share of that capacity reach Colorado animals before their last moment.
Licensed network
402shelter and rescue registrants were identified as affected in the 2024 fiscal note.Read the fiscal note02
The solution
A final, verifiable safety step
Notice. A short window. A willing lifesaver.
Let a licensee say yes
If a PACFA-licensed shelter or rescue accepts responsibility, the animal is held for transfer—not indefinitely, but long enough to complete the handoff.
Move promptly
The accepting organization has two open days to take possession and receives all material medical and behavioral information.
Protect safety and mercy
Immediate humane euthanasia remains available for irremediable suffering, and statutory exceptions protect the public from dangerous or court-ordered cases.
In plain language
If a qualified organization is ready to take custody, share the records, transfer the animal, and let that organization assume the work and responsibility.
What the bill did—and did not—do
Compassion without abandoning public safety.
The 2024 bill was not an absolute prohibition on euthanasia. It created a rescue-notice process for animals who had a remaining lifesaving option and specifically exempted urgent suffering and defined public-safety cases.
Read the introduced billProtected by the process
Healthy and treatable pets with a licensed organization ready to help.
One more chance before an irreversible decision.Exempt from delay
Animals who are irremediably suffering.
Mercy is not postponed when severe pain cannot be relieved.Public-safety exceptions
Dangerous, court-ordered, and documented repeated serious-bite cases.
The bill preserved carefully defined safety safeguards.03
The 2024 fight
A compassionate proposal met an established wall
The first attempt lost. The idea did not.
HB24-1114 introduced
The bipartisan House sponsorship paired Representative Mandy Lindsay with Representative Ryan Armagost; Senator Kevin Priola was the Senate sponsor.
Advocates and rescuers testified
Individuals, foster-based rescues, lifesaving shelters, and No Kill Colorado described animals lost when help existed but could not reach them in time.
Large institutions opposed it
The official record shows coordinated opposition from major shelters, statewide associations, municipal and county interests, and other established animal-welfare voices.
The bill fell 3–10
Four amendments passed without objection, but the motion to advance the amended bill failed. It was then postponed indefinitely.
Reasonable questions deserve direct answers
What opponents worried about—and what a stronger bill can solve.
Would suffering animals be forced to wait?
No. The introduced bill expressly allowed immediate euthanasia when a licensed veterinarian certified that an animal faced a grave prognosis and severe, unremitting pain even with prompt comprehensive care.
Would shelters carry liability after transfer?
The bill provided civil-liability protection for the transferring organization when it gave the receiving licensee all material information about the animal.
Would every animal be held indefinitely?
No. The process used defined notice and pickup windows. A rescue had to commit and take possession promptly; silence did not create an unlimited hold.
What about implementation cost?
The final fiscal note estimated an initial state cost of $523,980 and $233,154 in the following year, largely for the notification system and oversight. A renewed bill should use modern shelter software, phased implementation, and stakeholder input to reduce cost while preserving verifiable statewide notice.
Does this attack shelter workers?
It should not. Frontline staff work under enormous pressure. The policy changes the system around them by adding partners, visibility, and a final off-ramp before death—not by assigning personal blame.
Lifesaving evidence library
Go deeper on the policies that make rescue possible.
These No Kill Advocacy Center guides address the practical questions behind the Rescue Act: which animals can be helped, how community cats can be kept out of shelters, how to answer predictable objections, and why lifesaving can be fiscally responsible.
No Dog Left Behind
Behavior challenges should lead to careful assessment, treatment, and qualified placement—not an automatic death sentence when a capable organization can help.
Read or download the guide ↗Protecting Community Cats
Sterilize-and-return programs reduce shelter intake and killing, lower complaint calls and disease risk, and preserve shelter capacity for other animals.
Read or download the guide ↗Countering the Opposition
A practical guide to concerns about rescue transfers, cost, public safety, warehousing, open admission, and the public’s role in lifesaving.
Read or download the guide ↗Dollars & Sense
Lifesaving can reduce killing-related costs, increase adoption and community support, and generate economic activity for local businesses.
Read or download the guide ↗The underlying framework
No missing file required.
The official online No Kill 101 guide explains the lifesaving programs that replace killing with practical, humane alternatives.
Read No Kill 101A note to Colorado lawmakers
This is a narrow safeguard with a statewide result.
A renewed Rescue Act can be drafted with clear definitions, auditable notice, firm deadlines, full disclosure, enforcement that prioritizes compliance, and explicit protections for suffering animals, public safety, and shelter workers.
The policy question is simple: when a regulated organization is ready to assume custody and responsibility, should a savable animal be killed instead?
- Preserve humane and public-safety exceptions.
- Require verifiable notice to eligible PACFA licensees.
- Set short, enforceable response and transfer windows.
- Require complete medical and behavioral disclosure.
- Measure transfers, denials, exceptions, and outcomes.
One decision can reopen the door
Help Colorado choose life when life is still possible.
Ask your representatives to support a renewed Colorado Rescue Act. Invite your organization to stand with the shelters, rescues, advocates, and residents who believe every healthy and treatable homeless pet deserves a real chance.
Sources and methodology
Built for scrutiny.
Bill mechanics, votes, testimony, fiscal estimates, and 2025 animal figures link to public primary records. Statewide dog and cat totals are calculated from facility-reported PACFA data; as with any self-reported administrative dataset, they should be read with that limitation in mind.
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HB24-1114 bill page and introduced textColorado General Assembly
↗02February 29, 2024 committee hearing summaryColorado General Assembly
↗03Final fiscal noteColorado Legislative Council Staff
↗042025 shelter and rescue statisticsColorado Department of Agriculture / PACFA
↗05Colorado Rescue Act campaign and backgroundNo Kill Colorado
↗06No Dog Left BehindNo Kill Advocacy Center
↗07Protecting Community CatsNo Kill Advocacy Center
↗08Countering the OppositionNo Kill Advocacy Center
↗09Dollars & SenseNo Kill Advocacy Center
↗10No Kill 101No Kill Advocacy Center
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