The RSPCA National Stats for 2011/12 are now available.
I’ve pulled together the stats for each state for the last five years for comparison. I’ve focused on what happens to the unclaimed pet populations (because pets who’ve been collected by their owners don’t need ‘saving’).
First up dogs…
These figures are obviously commendable. Less than one in six unclaimed dogs (about 15%) are killed, while the other five dogs are saved.
(I recognise that with their current policies, the RSPCA ACT is potentially using ‘euthanasia’ in the true sense for dogs – only euthanising truly suffering and untreatable animals. However, as they are unable to treat and release feral cats, I have used killing in their statistics, as the term for animals who aren’t saved)
Something has gone awry with the RSPCA NSW figures. The overall dog intake figures have dropped by 9,000 in a single year, while their reclaims have gone from more than 5,000 to less than 1,000…
I will try and find out why this may be, because it does seem really strange that for the whole of NSW, just 900 dogs were reclaimed by their owners.
The RSPCA NT seems to be holding steady after decreasing its unclaimed dog numbers by nearly half compared to 2007…
They are currently killing about 1 in every 3 unclaimed dogs.
The RSPCA QLD state-wide is still killing nearly one in every two unclaimed dogs…
Is also killing every second unclaimed dog, even though they as an organisation they are only left with about 2,000 to place…
Probably demonstrating what a lack of clear leadership means for pets, the RSPCA TAS was left with just 1,000 unclaimed dogs to place, yet it still killed one in three…
The RSPCA VIC’s overall intakes for dogs seem to be dropping…
And they’ve dropped their kill rate from one in every two unclaimed dogs, to around one in every three.
Despite having less than 1,000 unclaimed dogs to place, the RSPCA WA killed a staggering one in three of them in 2011/12…
Which compared to 2007/08 sees them definitely marching backwards, not forwards with their lifesaving.
RSPCA ACT cat intakes and kill rates are remaining steady – demonstrating that no matter how dedicated a shelter sets out to be, without outreach desexing programs for unowned cats, or the ability to take unowned cats to monitored colony sites, there will always be avoidable killing.
Ho hum. There is something completely uncredible about the idea that the cat intakes at the RSPCA NSW have dropped by 4,000 in a single year.
However, even with much fewer cats, the stats are really very grim with a 60% kill rate for unclaimed cats and nearly 10,000 being killed in their shelters statewide.
The RSPCA NT by all accounts should have a unimaginably high kill rate for cats. Rural location = lots of killing, right?
Somehow they seem to be bucking the trend, with just 600 cats left unclaimed and a kill rate of one in three for unclaimed animals…
Playing with pricing and an emphasis on outreach desexing seems to be really paying off for the RSPCA QLD, dropping their intakes by 4,500 and their kill rate for unclaimed cats by 20%.
The RSPCA SA is still killing more than every second unclaimed cat at their facilities.
Nearly one in every two cats unclaimed at the RSPCA TAS is being killed.
Along with dropping their dog intakes, the RSPCA VIC seem to be doing a great job dropping their cat intakes, with 5,000 less cats entering their facility in just five years.
Their kill rate for unclaimed cats has also dropped from an outrageous 60%+ to an unimpressive 45%.
Just 729 unclaimed cats for the year for the whole year, should be a recipe for success right? Wrong…
One in three unclaimed cats are still being killed at the RSPCA WA.
Want to see the full figures? pdf here.
The rates aren’t all brilliant.
Once again Shel thanks for doing the legwork and making this information so easily accessible.
Re RSPCA NSW figure drop, there is a clause in the Cessnock Council contract which pushes onto the Council the kill stats for the impound animals which RSPCA chooses to kill instead of taking on. They may have similar clauses with other councils and started to exclude these as well. That would explain the drop in reclaims, but also hide killing on an even greater scale.
Something interesting I’ve found out. Businesses with stray cat/colony cats problems used to trap them and take them to the RSPCA. A business in Auburn cited taking 80 cats in. (Different feeders turning up 2, 3, 4 times a night dumping huge amounts of food and not putting in any effort to desex, to catch the sick, dying, suffering… just keep chucking mroe food at them.)
But another business at Marrickville, who used Rentokil about three months ago (again, feeders tending the cats, but not desexing them, and a food orientated business who by law can’t have colony cats around their premises)but told me that when they rang the RSPCA for them to take them, the RSPCA said no, we don’t do that anymore.
As they have been under fire recently about their kill rates, I truly wonder if this change in policy was to literally save the stats.
My concern here is, if the RSPCA don’t euthanise them, who does, and how? 50 cats, 100 cats, a private company out to make profit from what they do, how would they kill all of those cats? We can only hope they bring a vet on board, but is gassing out of the question with this channge in RSPCA policy? Who knows what would be happening to these cats now?
So, perhaps they aren’t fudging the numbers… excluding what would be a massive amount of cats a year, all eligible for euthanasia, not being socialised, probably classed as feral. Number shifting at the end of the day. Hidden euthanasia may be the new issue. Same number of cats copping it a year, we just aren’t going to hear about it because pest control companies are doing it.
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