In June this year, Division of Local Government, NSW Department of Premier and Cabinet released their annual report – Analysis of Council Data Collection for Seizures of Cats and Dogs (2011/2012). I’ve only just had a chance to look at this, but it paints a pretty sad picture for the pets of the state.
Firstly, we see that again that 90% of pets entering council facilities are lost and stray, with just 10% surrendered by their owners.
| Dogs | % | Cats | % | |
| Seized (council) | 34,328 | 64% | 10,580 | 42% |
| Handed in (not owner) | 13,884 | 26% | 12,410 | 50% |
| Surrendered (by owner) | 5,091 | 10% | 2,082 | 8% |
| Total | 53,303 | 100% | 25,072 | 100% |
Rather than pounds being awash with callously discarded animals, nine out of ten pets in pounds weren’t left their by owners, but have been seized by council or handed in by a community member. We always need to be thinking ‘lost’ not ‘unwanted’ when designing policy to reduce shelter intakes.
We’re often told that pounds are simply doing the public’s dirty work, and that if they could do anything to save pets, they would. Unfortunately, the stats show that this simply isn’t true.
Dogs are nearly three times more likely to be killed (26%) than adopted by the pound (10%). Cats are killed at a rate of six times vs adoption.
| Dog | % | Cat | % | |
| Sold | 4,781 | 10% | 2,398 | 10% |
| Killed | 11,945 | 26% | 16,145 | 65% |
| Released to rescue | 9,279 | 20% | 5,129 | 21% |
... stats continued table below…
To be fair, some pounds do release to rescue groups. However, dogs are killed at a rate (26%) nearly equal to rescue and adoption combined (30%) – and this figure includes transfers to major groups like the RSPCA who may kill the pet on intake.
Cats are still killed in numbers several times larger than those who are saved.
… continued from table above
| Dog | % | Cat | % | |
| Returned to owner | 19,867 | 43% | 731 | 3% |
| Total | 45,872 | 100% | 24,403 | 100% |
It has long been purported that taking a cat to a pound or shelter is a good way to locate his or her owner. As animal advocates we need to reject that message, as of the over 12,000 cats handed in to the pound by concerned community members, just 731 were reunited with their owner – or just 3% of the total cat intakes.
Pounds or shelters are not safe places for cats. All directives to the community should be to keep cats out of pounds, not encourage their impoundment, if we’re serious about their welfare.
With a kill rate of 26% for dogs and 65% of cats, our NSW pounds are still killing thousands of animals unnecessarily.
Across the US, hundreds of communities representing about 500 cities and towns across are saving roughly 90% of all animals and as high as 99%.
Our pets deserve the same modern, compassionate pound system. Reject killing as an appropriate tool to manage our companion animals and reject excuses for killing.
