Animal Welfare Professionals

Muni shelter here; we are aiming to remove breed labels in 2026.

I need some feedback from other municipal shelters who currently do this. 
A few questions..

1. When did you start removing breed labels?
2. When do you label a breed? 
3. Do you use mixed/unknown?
4. What pet program do you use? (Chameleon, etc)
5. What sort of feedback from the community did you receive?
   Picture of a cutie chicken just for funsies. 
6.  No clue why I attached another picture..sorry bout it. :p 

#AdmissionsandIntake(includingIntake-to-placement)
#AdoptionsandAdoptionPrograms
#Diversity,Equity,InclusionandJustice #BreedLabels #RemovingBreedLabels 

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Stephanie Jackson
Public Information Officer
Louisville Metro Animal Services
Louisville, KY
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Hi Stephanie, 

Highly recommend checking out Animal Farm Foundation's fantastic resource library.  They have took kits specifically for this topic, among many other phenomenal resources I believe you will find very informative.  Good luck!    https://www.animalfarmfoundation.org/resourceslibrary/

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Michelle Grimes | CPDT-KA, LVT, CVT, Elite FFCP-V, FFCP-T

Animal Control Officer #275
Keene Police Department
Bureau of Special Services
400 Marlboro Street
Keene, NH 03431
P: 603.357.9815
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Original Message:
Sent: 12-30-2025 05:48 AM
From: Stephanie Jackson (she/her)
Subject: Removing Breed Labels 2026

Muni shelter here; we are aiming to remove breed labels in 2026.

I need some feedback from other municipal shelters who currently do this. 
A few questions..

1. When did you start removing breed labels?
2. When do you label a breed? 
3. Do you use mixed/unknown?
4. What pet program do you use? (Chameleon, etc)
5. What sort of feedback from the community did you receive?
   Picture of a cutie chicken just for funsies. 
6.  No clue why I attached another picture..sorry bout it. :p 

#AdmissionsandIntake(includingIntake-to-placement)
#AdoptionsandAdoptionPrograms
#Diversity,Equity,InclusionandJustice #BreedLabels #RemovingBreedLabels 

------------------------------
Stephanie Jackson
Public Information Officer
Louisville Metro Animal Services
Louisville, KY
------------------------------

Following, as this is something I'd love to do too, but we have a lot of mixed thoughts among the team - with fair points such as breed is usually the first question we get about a dog, and they want us to guess even if we do the whole explanation about why that is not useful 😅

We use ShelterBuddy, which does require a primary breed - but it includes "Mixed" as an option!

We also partner with AdoPet and Petfinder, which I believe both allow Mixed breed (Petfinder used to require a breed). 

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Erin Dams
Operations Director
Roanoke Valley SPCA
Roanoke VA
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 12-30-2025 05:48 AM
From: Stephanie Jackson (she/her)
Subject: Removing Breed Labels 2026

Muni shelter here; we are aiming to remove breed labels in 2026.

I need some feedback from other municipal shelters who currently do this. 
A few questions..

1. When did you start removing breed labels?
2. When do you label a breed? 
3. Do you use mixed/unknown?
4. What pet program do you use? (Chameleon, etc)
5. What sort of feedback from the community did you receive?
   Picture of a cutie chicken just for funsies. 
6.  No clue why I attached another picture..sorry bout it. :p 

#AdmissionsandIntake(includingIntake-to-placement)
#AdoptionsandAdoptionPrograms
#Diversity,Equity,InclusionandJustice #BreedLabels #RemovingBreedLabels 

------------------------------
Stephanie Jackson
Public Information Officer
Louisville Metro Animal Services
Louisville, KY
------------------------------