Ed Sayres, President and CEO of the ASPCA, has been a national leader in the animal welfare community for close to four decades.  He is a pioneer of the “no-kill” model of animal sheltering, which exhorts community groups to collaborate to stop the killing of healthy or treatable dogs and cats in animal shelters. When Mr. Sayres started at the ASPCA in 2003, only 33 percent of the animals in New York City’s shelters made it out alive.  As of the first quarter of 2012, approximately 80 percent of the animals entering New York City shelters find homes.  Mr. Sayres’ no-kill initiatives, achieved through collaboration with other groups, are saving lives.  

During Mr. Sayres’ tenure, the ASPCA created a transport network to help transfer adoptable animals in high supply to areas of low supply and high demand and developed a robust grants program, which awarded over $15 million in funding to animal welfare organizations around the country in 2011. The organization developed a field investigation and disaster response program following its work during Hurricane Katrina.  Under his leadership, the ASPCA also developed a program dedicated to assisting federal and local authorities crack down on dog fighting. In 2007, the organization worked closely with federal authorities during the Michael Vick dog fighting case, where the ASPCA's general consultation and specific role in processing the forensic evidence were key elements that resulted in Mr. Vick and the three other defendants pleading guilty to felonies.