Fewer animals killed–but pit bulls & Chihuahuas crowd shelters

Only three years after U.S. animal shelters killed fewer than four million dogs and cats for the first time in about half a century, the toll appears to have fallen below three million–just barely.

ANIMAL PEOPLE has produced estimates of U.S. shelter killing of dogs and cats annually since 1993, at first projected from whole-state surveys done by other organizations. Since 1997 we have combined recent whole-state data where available with data from the city and county level, wherever the local data includes all animal control shelters and other open admission shelters within a particular jurisdiction. Each ANIMAL PEOPLE annual estimate includes the most recent available data from the three preceding fiscal or calendar years. Read more

Feral cat neuter/return results appear to have plateaued

MOUNT RANIER, Maryland– Data gathered by Alley Cat Rescue from 120 feral cat neuter/return projects in 37 states affirms the longtime ANIMAL PEOPLE belief, based on estimated feral cat intake at animal shelters, that neuter/return is helping to hold the U.S. feral cat population at the present level, but is no longer achieving the steep drops in feral cat numbers that characterized the rise of neuter/return to widespread practice in the 1990s. Read more