 Founded in 1910, the Dumb Friends League is a national leader in providing humane care to lost and abandoned animals, rescuing sick, injured and abused animals, adopting pets to new homes, helping pets stay in homes, and educating pet owners and the public about the needs of companion animals.
The Dumb Friends League is the largest animal welfare organization in the Rocky Mountain region, welcoming tens of thousands animals to our two shelters. We turn no animals away.
At our main shelter in southeast Denver and our Buddy Center in Castle Rock, dogs, cats, rabbits and other small pets enjoy the comfort of a nurturing environment in state-of-the-art facilities.
The Dumb Friends League:
The Dumb Friends League is committed to the welfare of animals:
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We shall provide shelter and care for animals
- We shall provide programs and services that enhance the bond between animals and people
- We shall be advocates for animals … speaking for those who cannot speak for themselves
 When our organization was founded in 1910, it was named after a London, England, animal shelter called Our Dumb Friends League. In those days, the term "dumb" was often used to refer to those who were unable to speak.
Although the term "dumb" is not generally used with that meaning today, we've kept our name, because it has significant recognition among Colorado residents.
The mission statement of the Dumb Friends League includes these words: “speaking for those who cannot speak for themselves," meaning our companion animal friends.
We are a private, nonprofit organization, and thanks to the support of many individual, foundation and corporate donors, we continue to make a big difference for the people and animals in our community and beyond.
The Dumb Friends League welcomes every animal in need. We turn no animals away. We are defined as an “open admission” shelter.
There are other organizations that call themselves
“no kill” shelters, but we find the term misleading. These
organizations are more accurately defined as “limited admission”
shelters, because, generally speaking, they have to restrict the number
of animals they take in. They may turn away those that aren’t healthy
or behaviorally sound. To operate successfully, they have to limit their
intake to animals that can be adopted quickly.
As an open-admission shelter, we take in ill and injured animals and those that are not immediate candidates for adoption. We receive pets that are no longer wanted, pets from people who can no longer care for them, as well as stray animals.
We work hard to give second chances to every healthy or rehabilitatable animal, and we do a very good job.
There is no set time limit for how long an animal can remain in our Adoptions program. As long as an animal maintains general good health, a sound temperament and we have space, we'll keep a pet for weeks, sometimes months. We may put a healthy but overlooked animal in temporary foster care and return it to the Adoptions program at a later time. We move sick animals into foster care or into our TLC Center for treatment, where they remain available for adoption. And we work with our placement partners (breed groups and other organizations), who find homes for some harder-to-place animals. We do everything we can to avoid euthanasia of healthy or rehabilitatable animals.
But more keep coming—an average of about 83 every day—and the reality is that there is not enough space and money to accommodate all of them. We humanely euthanize those animals—primarily cats—that are not chosen by new families. We also euthanize aggressive animals—primarily dogs—that are determined to be a potential threat to the community and those sick or injured animals that are unrehabilitatable given our resource limitations.
To reach the goal, we are working locally with our animal welfare partners in the Metro Denver Shelter Alliance and nationally with organizations like The Humane Society of the United States to make the community problem of surplus animals a thing of the past. Here’s our action plan.
We are:
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Stepping up efforts to promote spaying and neutering
- Increasing the number of shelter animals adopted to new homes
- Encouraging responsible pet ownership through expanded public awareness and humane education
- Supporting pet owners through dog training classes, behavior counseling and Web sites
- Involving ourselves proactively in humane issues through legislative processes
Learn more about the Dumb Friends League by reading our publications.
You can also subscribe to our online newsletter, League Mews.
The Dumb Friends League respects the privacy of its donors. We do not sell or
exchange any individual donor information. For details on our privacy policy, click here.
We are a private nonprofit organization. We spend an average of $300 on every animal adopted, over and above the fee paid by the patron. If you would like to help us, you can click here to make a secure online donation or print out a donation form and mail or fax it to us.
The Dumb Friends League respects the privacy of its donors. We do not sell or exchange any individual donor information. For details on our privacy policy, click here.
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