The shortage of ‘good enough’ rescue dogs in Melbourne

The Lost Dogs Home in North Melbourne are currently running a ‘half-price’ adoption promotion.

It has also been the Christmas school holidays – the busiest time in rescue for stray collections, surrenders and adoptions.

Since Monday 24th December (Christmas eve), for two weeks, until Sunday 6th Jan (14 days) the following ‘bully breed’ dogs have been made available for adoption;

Bully breeds (7)

During the same period, the following small breed and fluffies have been made available for adoption:

Small breeds (31)

So even though Staffies and ‘Amstaffs’ are considered two of our most popular breeds in Australia, there are four times as many ‘little white fluffies’ (LWF’s) making it onto the adoption floor.

In fact, if you added large breeds offered for adoption;

Large breeds (11)

With the medium breeds available for adoption;

Medium breeds (10)

To the number of bully breeds, (7 + 11 + 10) you get less (28) than the number of LWF’s (31).

Large breed, medium breed and bullies by all shelter dynamic calculations, should outnumber LWF’s several to one. So where are all the missing dogs?

Pups (6)

In addition to these dogs, there were six pups listed over the 14 days – taking the totals of dogs listed up to 65.

Melbourne’s rescue dog shortage

While the organisation constantly laments their ‘overpopulation’, only a handful of dogs become available each day.

65 dogs over the two weeks of the Christmas holidays is about 4 dogs being made available for adoption each day. This shelter currently processes pets for upwards of 12 local councils, and according to their latest annual report, about 15 dogs finish up their impound period at the North Melbourne site each day.

Why then, are only 4 dogs making it onto the adoption floor daily, during an adoption campaign?

With 54% of unclaimed dogs ending up dead, there are a lot of dogs not surviving their brush with the Lost Dogs Home. The breed bias and lack of choice when it comes to which pets are made available for adoption is costing the lives of pets.

No matter how fantastic your publicity around your adoption promotion, the public can’t save the lives of homeless dogs, if they’re never made available for adoption.