Animal Shelter Statistics 07-2009

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Animal Services Monthly Report July, 2009 5 It is often said that pet problems are people problems, and that pet overpopulation is a community problem. These insights very much apply to our own circumstances and they help create a broader perspective in which to understand our own sheltering statistics. More specifically, the number of animals that are sheltered in a given period of time is itself not caused by or a direct function of our sheltering operations and practices. The number of unwanted animals in our communities (sometimes referred to as “surplus” pets); the extent to which cats, rabbits and dogs alike are spayed or neutered rather than allowed to remain intact and reproduce; the strength of norms and customs of responsible pet ownership; the scope and strength of animal regulations and their effective enforcement; and other such “variables” are what affect the number of animals that are sheltered in our own and other communities. Monthly and Seasonal Variations Month by month there are significant changes in the numbers of cats, dogs and other animals that are sheltered at Orange County’s Animal Services Center. In very general terms, there is a significant “spread” in the number of animals that are sheltered each month, which reflect the seasonal nature of pet demographics and animal sheltering in our own and other communities. During the peak summer months, the numbers are traditionally much higher than in other months of the year. In July, for instance, 620 animals were sheltered. Whereas this is similar to the number sheltered last July (737), it is much higher than the number sheltered in January (253). Similarly, this July 416 animals were admitted to the shelter—a very large number that equates to over 13 animals per day over that thirty-one- day period. Moreover, it should be underscored that the “live release rate” for a given time period is determined by the number of animals that are sheltered as well as the total number of animals that are adopted, transferred, or recovered by their owner. It may well be that there is a very high percentage of animals that are released alive in a given month but that the absolute number is lower than in other months because of the number of animals that come to the shelter. Addressing Pet Overpopulation To work toward the desideratum of ending euthanasia as a means of population control, it is thus essential to positively impact the number of animals that come into Orange County’s Animal Services Center in the course of the year. Essential to this is progressive legislation that is enforced in an effective, fair and reasonable manner. A starting point is what is sometimes referred to as “differential licensing”—that is, licensing or registration fees that are much lower for spayed and neutered animals than for intact animals. Orange County has had differential licensing for many years, and in