The missing 100,000

Animal advocate: “250,000 dogs and cats are euthanised in Australia every year, and animal overpopulation is to blame.”

We’ve all heard it before. A quarter of a million pets are killed every year in pounds and shelters across Australia. That’s a lot of pets. And it’s happening because of ‘overpopulation’, greedy breeders and irresponsible people letting their pets breed.

So where are all the pets?

PetRescue is heading into its ninth year. I feel pretty confident in saying the majority of animals rehomed by independent rescue and foster care groups at some stage have had a listing on PetRescue – I’m confident about this because I know exactly just how incredibly hard our rescue groups work, to use every avenue available to them to find their pets a new home. And PetRescue is free, so is a common first step for new intakes.

In the 2011 year (excluding the three major shelters, the RSPCA, LDH and AWL) just 18,000 dogs and 10,000 cats were listed on PetRescue by rescue groups.

That’s not even close to a quarter of a million.

Unclaimed pets at the three major shelters nationally (based on Annual Stats for each) is about 55,000 dogs and 77,000 cats.

So we have a total of:

73,000 dogs
and
87,000 cats
unclaimed and available for adoption.

So even if we had zero adoptions – none at all – we’re about 100,000 short of the commonly repeated 250,000 shelter deaths. And we don’t have zero adoptions – a good chunk of these pets find new families.

But what about pound pets?

Well, many of the larger pounds are run by the major animal welfare groups (above), so will have been counted in their intake statistics. A few will be releasing to rescue and will be counted there. But for the ones left – if they have adoptable pets looking for homes – where are they?

Where are all the pets?

Pounds tell us they’re overflowing. They tell us they have to kill because they are bursting at the seams with animals that they can’t rehome. If the current stats are to be believed, these pounds are flooded with the extra 100,000 unclaimed pets who are dying each year from lack of a home.

So why don’t they show up in any of these stats?

Why aren’t these pets being advertised as available on PetRescue? Why aren’t these guys being connected with adopters through a PetRescue listing?

Why aren’t these pets being released into the community? Why aren’t they being released to independent rescue groups, or held by the pound’s own foster carers, who would then advertise them on PetRescue?

How is it ‘overpopulation’ (the definition being overcapacity or beyond the carrying capacity) when even the most basic of basic actions – a photo and listing on an adoption website – isn’t being implemented by the pound? How are these pets supposed to find homes?

With 5.7 million owned pets in Australia (3.4m dogs, 2.3m cats), we’re looking at a tiny fraction needing rehoming each year (about 4%). Can we really blame an ‘irresponsible public’ then for the killing?

We need just four from every 100 of these pet owners to adopt, to save every unclaimed pet. Can we really blame ‘breeders’ if this isn’t happening?

A deadly alliance

These intake trends are not new. They have been common knowledge for at least a decade*. Why then are major animal welfare groups still chasing breeders and irresponsible owners in the quest eliminate shelter killing. Surely they should be looking at this ‘missing 100,000?’

There is a lot – and I mean literally millions and millions of dollars annually – invested in the idea that pets are dying because of shelter pet overpopulation because of greedy breeders and irresponsible people’. The RSPCA nationally saw more than $100 million dollars in income in 2010/11, with the majority of that being raised on the back of Australia’s favourite animals; our dogs and cats…

Chasing breeders and irresponsible people is an easy way to make companion animal issues, ‘someone else’s’ fault.

The public in turn feel the problem is enormous and insurmountable and have no other option but to give money. Conceivably forever.

In contrast, if the major groups were to stand up and condemn the ‘missing 100,000’ acknowledging that underperforming pounds and shelters and the primary reason healthy, treatable pets are killed – then something different happens.

People start asking questions.

They start demanding information.

They start comparing performance.

They start counting every animal as an individual worth saving.

And suddenly this is no longer about a passive public who accepts killing as a necessary evil and supports blindy in good faith. But an educated public who demands accountability.

They want you to keep blaming ‘breeders’

They don’t want you to look at stats, or trends, or for you to start investigating your local pound, because they would rather you kept thinking that Australians are all abandoning pets in record numbers and that the problem is enormous and beyond you to solve… except you can make a donation.

But each day a new pound gets caught out by its public, who are no longer happy to enable the killing to continue. Each day people are shocked to find out their local pound kills some, many, or all of the healthy, friendly pets that are left unclaimed at their facility, while doing little to implement the programs to stop it.

The ‘missing 100,000’ is animal welfare’s dirty little secret. And the secret is out.

*Major Animal Groups Annual Reports, the NSW Pound Intake Survey, Shelter Research from Monash University VIC and the University of QLD etc. Regular readers of this blog will have seen them all.