Jeremy Bentham and an unknown lawyer.
(Beth Clifton collage)
“The question is not “can we count it?” but “can we make inferences using the data?”
Atlanta, Georgia –The Shelter Animal Census was established in 2011 primarily out of denial by several national animal advocacy groups that pit bull overpopulation could not be successfully addressed through breed-neutral methods, so the 2023 It is not surprising that the Shelter Animal Count Report has yielded no results. Whatever the specific mention of pit bulls.
(See 2023 Shelter Animal Population Estimates.)
Nevertheless, Animals 24/7 As we consider the 2023 shelter population data for cats and the history of the shelter population itself, we have committed to examining the shelter population dog data separately.
(See “Currently, fewer cats are killed in shelters than dogs. Impact of the 5 Cat Fix?”)
(Beth Clifton collage)
“Wake up and smell the doghouse!”
Regardless of whether Shelter Animals Count or any of its 28 sponsoring organizations choose to wake up and sniff the kennels, most of it is bad news about pit bulls. The late advice columnist Ann Landers might have said so, but she didn’t. His five syndicated warnings about the impending pit bull crisis, published from 1987 to his 1989.
(See tips for pit bulls, rabbits, and Ann Landers’ 100th birthday.)
For dogs, the 2023 Shelter Animal Count points out that while causes of death are increasing for both dogs and cats, the number of dogs euthanized (359,000 dogs) is higher than that of cats. It begins with the observation that the number of animals euthanized has exceeded (330,000 animals). Cat). ”
(Beth Clifton collage)
“Non-live results”
By the way, “non-survival outcome” means “death”, whether euthanized or not. Being killed by another dog in a fight that is inevitable due to overcrowding is even more inevitable when one or more of the dogs crammed into a cage is a pit bull. People sometimes die from disease in evacuation centers, another inevitable result of overcrowding.
How bad has the overcrowding gotten?
“Since January 2021, a total of 900,000 animals have entered and remained in our nation’s shelters and rescue facilities,” the shelter animal count states. “This surplus is on top of the population already existing within the organization, resulting in an ongoing capacity crisis.”
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What kind of dog stays for a long time?
The Shelter Animals Count does not disclose the current inventory of animal shelters and rescue dogs in the United States, but the numbers reported put it at 960,000 dogs, or about the total number of dogs in the United States. It can reach 11%.
This is roughly twice the proportion of the U.S. dog population, which various studies suggest passed through animal shelters 20 to 30 years ago. As Shelter Animals Count acknowledges, many of today’s dogs aren’t just passing through, they’re passing through both animal shelters. Dead and alive.
Many, perhaps 30%, of dogs that arrive at animal shelters are not rescued simply by choice, and remain in shelters or shelters.
What dogs are left? Shelter Animals Count does not say.
(Beth Clifton collage)
Your dog’s intake will increase. Running at Large Up. It will be confiscated.
Shelter Animals Count says dog intake in 2023 was 3% higher than in 2022 and 10% higher than in 2021, compared to 2019 before the coronavirus outbreak. 6% less, meaning more semi-housebound people are becoming social. With dogs instead of other humans.
In 2023, 46% of dogs were released at large, the same as in 2019, relatively consistent with trends going back more than 50 years for as long as shelter admission data exists.
The number of detention centers run by the Animal Welfare and Management Bureau has increased.
Shelter Animals Count said that “the number of dog surrenders has remained stable since 2021,” adding, “Still, the number of dog surrenders has increased by 10% compared to 2019, the last pre-COVID-19 year.” “This reflects a decline in the number of
(Beth Clifton collage)
“A significant increase in the causes of death in dogs”
What is the conclusion?
“The causes of death in dogs have increased significantly in recent years,” Shelter Animals Count admits.
Another factor is that “the return rate to owners (of total dog intake) has decreased from 18% in 2019 to 16% in 2023.”
In 2023, the Shelter Animals Count found that “242,000 fewer dogs left shelters due to liveouts than in 2019, and 561,000 dogs were transferred between organizations, but fewer dogs were in shelters than in 2019. The total number of dogs killed was 359,000.”
These transfers primarily involve “pulling” dogs from professionally managed animal control shelters to amateur-run shelterless rescue facilities, most of which fall outside the scope of community responsibility. It is operated beyond.
(Beth Clifton collage)
What is it that screams “pitbull” between the lines?
What’s screaming “pit bull” between the lines of the 2023 shelter animal count data?
Consider the starting point for the number of animals in your shelter.
Before Shelter Animals Count debuted in 2011; Animals 24/7produces annual estimates of admissions and discharges from animal shelters from 1997 to 2014, and accounts for approximately one-third of dog admissions and two-thirds of dog euthanasia. I assumed it was occupied by pit bulls.
Many of the funders of the first Shelter Animals Count vehemently denied that pit bull numbers could be this high. Especially since pit bulls made up less than 5% of the total dog population in the United States up until that point, and they still make up only 5.5% of dogs in the United States. current population.
(See category Most Popular Dog Breeds in the United States.)
But the low numbers supported by Shelter Animals Count funders were themselves significantly higher compared to the pit bull population.
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PetSmart Charities and ASPCA
In 2016, before Shelter Animals Count released any data at all, PetSmart Charities, one of the project’s “platinum sponsors,” had already accounted for 40% to 45% of kennel space in U.S. animal shelters. It was estimated that pit bulls accounted for 50% of the population.
“If you look at the euthanasia rates from the 68 shelters that participated in the study, there’s an incredibly sharp contrast,” Emily Weiss, an American SPCA data analyst, wrote in 2017. 40% of all deaths were of the pit type.” “The steep, precipitous decline of 9% for the next breed of Labrador is convincing,” Weiss said.
In other words, even if the overpopulation of pit bulls in animal shelters were no worse than when the Shelter Animals Count began in 2023, a huge “residual” dog inventory and an increasing 40% of “non-biological consequences” That would be a pit bull. Significantly disproportionately high numbers.
(Beth Clifton collage)
Are 77% of rescue dogs pit bulls?
But the problem is deeper.
Observing Los Angeles animal watch Blogger Phyllis M. Daugherty wrote on September 4, 2023, “Today on the Los Angeles Animal Services website, 18 of the 24 photos on the first page of adoptable dogs are of adult pit bulls. The first dog is over 7 years old and has been in the kennel since December 2020.
“The second page is similar, except that 19 of the 24 animals are pit bulls.”
This number represents 77% of Pitbulls.
Thoroughly check other major animal protection websites across the country, Animals 24/7 Something similar is often seen, even though many Pitbulls are incorrectly labeled as other breeds, or mixtures with other breeds.
(Beth Clifton collage)
Whether it’s 40% or 80%, the long-term results are the same
But whether the proportion of pit bulls entering animal shelters and shelters each year is close to 40% or 80% of dog intake, and whether pit bulls account for 40% or 80% of dogs killed in shelters. Whether there is or not, the inescapable conclusion is that there are far more pit bulls. More bulls come to rescue shelters and kennel space than Americans choose them as pets.
Pit bulls, even if they are adopted, will inevitably remain long before being adopted. The cumulative result is that pit bulls make up a larger proportion of shelter inventory than ever before.
Animals 24/7 For the 14th year in a row, we have conducted an annual electronic survey of online advertisements offering dogs for sale or adoption, and we have conducted an annual electronic survey of online advertisements offering dogs for sale or adoption, whether by breeders, shelters, or rescues. is estimated.
(See How many dogs are in your window? 2023 Dog Breed Census.)
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Calling Pitbull something else hides the problem, but doesn’t solve it
Of the total publicly available Pit Bull inventory, 36% comes from shelters and rescue organizations, which is six times the norm for all other breeds combined.
This inevitably leads to the reality that over a third of the pit bull inventory available during the three-day survey period had already left one or more homes.
But the whole truth could be worse. Shelters and rescue organizations tend to try to make pit bulls more adoptable by calling them different names or simply not identifying the breed at all.
(Beth Clifton collage)
The only solution is to stop breeding.
Of the 752,000 total shelter and rescue dogs offered for adoption during 2023; Animals 24/7 The study identified only 234,996 dogs by breed, or 31%.
More than two-thirds of shelter and rescue dogs, 69% to be exact, were not identified by breed.
If even half of these unidentified dogs were pit bulls, pit bulls would occupy more than 70 percent of the available shelter and rescue kennel space. If they were all pit bulls, a breed that represents only 5.5% of the total dog population in the United States would occupy 80% of all shelter and rescue kennel space.
Animals 24/7 Similar numbers have been found every year since 2010.
Beth and Merritt Clifton
This suggests negative research from Shelter Animals Count regarding trends in dog “death outcomes”, increased shelter dog inventories, increased dog detentions, and decreased returns to owners. The result is an ever-growing oversupply of pit bulls.
The oversupply of pit bulls is at least partly due to animal shelters and rescues actively pushing pit bulls out of the oversupply, instead of promoting sterilization, such as by forcing breed-specific neutering. This is an obvious result of the fact that Overpopulation of pit bulls at the source.
