Most Americans today hold the humane treatment of animals as a personal value, reflected in our laws, the proliferation of organizations founded for animal protection, increased per capita spending on animal care, and great advancements in veterinary medicine. However, the agencies that the public expects to protect animals are instead killing more than five million annually.

How did this happen? How did the very charities founded on the highest ideals of compassion become the nation’s leading killers of dogs and cats? And why does the animal-loving American public, the very same people who talk to their own pets and celebrate their birthdays, not only accept this situation but continue to foot the bill for the daily killing of animals through taxes and voluntary donations?

Redemption is the story of animal sheltering in the United States, a movement that was born of compassion and then lost its way. It is the story of the “No Kill” movement, which says we can and must stop the killing. It is about heroes and villains, betrayal and redemption. And it is about a social movement as noble and just as those that have come before. But most of all, it is a story about believing in the community and trusting in the power of compassion.