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Animal Services Monthly Report December, 2009 <br /> <br />5 <br />Pet Demographics and Overpopulation <br /> <br />It is often said that pet problems are people problems, and that pet overpopulation is a <br />community problem. These insights very much apply to our own circumstances and they <br />help create a broader perspective in which to understand our own sheltering statistics. <br /> <br />More specifically, the number of animals that are sheltered in a given period of time is <br />itself not caused by or a direct function of our sheltering operations and practices. The <br />number of unwanted animals in our communities (sometimes referred to as “surplus” <br />pets); the extent to which cats, rabbits and dogs alike are spayed or neutered rather than <br />allowed to remain intact and reproduce; the strength of norms and customs of responsible <br />pet ownership; the scope and strength of animal regulations and their effective <br />enforcement; and other such “variables” are what affect the number of animals that are <br />sheltered in our own and other communities. <br /> <br /> <br />Monthly and Seasonal Variations <br /> <br />Month by month there are significant changes in the numbers of cats, dogs and other <br />animals that are sheltered at Orange County’s Animal Services Center. In very general <br />terms, there is a significant “spread” in the number of animals that are sheltered each <br />month, which reflect the seasonal nature of pet demographics and animal sheltering in <br />our own and other communities. <br /> <br />During the peak winter months, the numbers are traditionally much lower than in other <br />months of the year. In December, for instance, 397 animals were sheltered. Whereas <br />this is fewer than the number sheltered last December (556), it is higher than the number <br />sheltered in January (253). Similarly, this December 233 animals were admitted to the <br />shelter—a large number that equates to over 7 animals per day over that thirty- day <br />period. <br /> <br />Moreover, it should be underscored that the “live release rate” for a given time period is <br />determined by the number of animals that are sheltered as well as the total number of <br />animals that are adopted, transferred, or recovered by their owner. It may well be that <br />there is a very high percentage of animals that are released alive in a given month but that <br />the absolute number is lower than in other months because of the number of animals that <br />come to the shelter. <br /> <br />Addressing Pet Overpopulation <br /> <br />To work toward the desideratum of ending euthanasia as a means of population control, it <br />is thus essential to positively impact the number of animals that come into Orange <br />County’s Animal Services Center in the course of the year. Essential to this is <br />progressive legislation that is enforced in an effective, fair and reasonable manner. A <br />starting point is what is sometimes referred to as “differential licensing”—that is, <br />licensing or registration fees that are much lower for spayed and neutered animals than