Latest U.S. data shows shelter killing down to 4.4 million a year
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2002:
Rapid progress against pet overpopulation in some of the
fastest-growing parts of the Sunbelt and the Midwest combined with
continued low shelter killing volume in the Northeast and Northwest
to bring estimated total U.S. shelter killing in 2001 down to 4.4
million–the lowest toll on record.
Our 2001 estimate is projected from data covering every major
shelter in cities and states including 42% of the current U.S. human
population of 281 million. The shelter tolls in 1999 and 2000 were
almost identical, at 4.5 million and 4.6 million, with the
difference being in how numbers were rounded off.