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I guess it would depend on whose window you're looking out to determine which set of statistics to use.
This is from the Humane Society - est. 70,000 puppies and kittens born DAILY in the U.S. - 7 times as many dogs and cats as humans, and we're already worried about human overpopulation to the point some countries have birth quotas. I think that's what spay/neuter does - limits the number of births. I'd rather see folks be responsible than it turn into a government mandate. There's lots more I could say on that but I won't!
Based on your est figure of 70,000 puppies and kittens per day, that is about 25,550,000 births per year. The few web sites I looked at est. between 3 and 9 million killed in shelters yearly, depending on what site you look at. That leaves 16,550,00 dogs and cats that are homed each year and not killed at the shelters.
I am not sure if that makes sense or not, but I am really tired and will have to come look at this again later.
It has been proven time and time that mandatory spay/neuter increases intake in shelters, which means increasing the number of animals euthanized.
The vast majority of pet owners ARE altered. Most people want to spay and neuter their pets...the barrier is cost, not motivation. Mandatory spay/neuter does not address the barrier, so it only forces people to give up their pets to avoid being fined. A person who can't afford to have their animal altered can't afford to risk a large fine.
The only important statistics are the number of animals in shelters vs. the number of people who plan to add a pet to their homes (re: the number of potential homes.) In the next year, more people will add an animal to their household than there are pets in shelters. The problem is that many of these people will buy from a breeder or adopt from a family member. Very few will buy from a pet store- the public has gotten that message. Most animals are obtained through a family member.
If we could get a percentage of these people to adopt from a shelter instead, we'd solve the nonexistent overpopulation issue. Not even if one of them...just a percentage.
I don't think 'overpopulation' is a simple thing to solve. I do think many, many shelters are part of the problem...far more so than the irresponsible public they love to rant against. Shelters that support and advocate for spay/neuter laws are part of the problem. If every kill shelter changed just a few policies to make them more friendly to the public and help convert that percentage into adoption, I'm betting it would make a huge, huge difference.
If we really wanted to end this issue, we wouldn't be focusing on the public or spay/neuter. We would be legislating shelters and setting a nation wide policy for how they are operated.
(BTW...the stats for births on that page appear to include feral cats. Since ferals aren't adopted out to pet homes, including them makes no sense and artificially inflates the number with an irrelevant group)
Most animal welfare organizations, including ASPCA and HSUS, don't support *mandatory*spay/neuter. It can cause noncompliant people not to license dogs or take them to the vet for routine vaccinations. This can create problems that may make pets more likely to end up in shelters. This has no bearing on whether or not there is pet overpopulation, or whether voluntary spay/neuter reduces euthanasia.
Also, feral adults are almost never adopted into homes, but feral kittens are often brought into shelters or animal control facilities, where depending on the policy they are either immediately euthanized, or attempted to be socialized enough to be adopted out. So they absolutely have an effect on euthanasia numbers, and to a lesser extent, overpopulation numbers.
Most animal welfare organizations, including ASPCA and HSUS, don't support *mandatory*spay/neuter. It can cause noncompliant people not to license dogs or take them to the vet for routine vaccinations. This can create problems that may make pets more likely to end up in shelters. This has no bearing on whether or not there is pet overpopulation, or whether voluntary spay/neuter reduces euthanasia.
Also, feral adults are almost never adopted into homes, but feral kittens are often brought into shelters or animal control facilities, where depending on the policy they are either immediately euthanized, or attempted to be socialized enough to be adopted out. So they absolutely have an effect on euthanasia numbers, and to a lesser extent, overpopulation numbers.
The HSUS supported mandatory spay/neuter until very recently and helped pass such legislation in many areas. Regardless, many local shelters continue to attempt to pass such legislation in their home areas. Spay and neutering is often brought up as the solution to overpopulation. MOST pet owners are responsible and don't breed their pets- they've gotten the message that pet animals should be spayed and neutered.
Of course we'll never have 100% compliance. There will always be irresponsible pet owners and unfortunately, many of them own breeds that are already over-represented in shelters (and you could argue that certain breeds are overpopulated even if there is no overall population issue.) They will remain, as always, part of the problem...but I no longer feel they are the root cause of it.
Ferals have an effect on population, but not in shelters. The vast, vast majority of feral cats will never see the inside of a shelter. They are part of the number of animals born, but it doesn't actually tell us anything about animals in shelters or why they are euthanized. So seeing that number (70,000 born a day!!- ohmygosh!!) has the effect of making it seem like the problem is insurmountable. It's a scare tactic. The page says that 'there will never been enough homes for so many animals" - but then includes a very large population that isn't entering the shelter system at all. And when feral cats do enter the system, they need to be managed differently from pets and don't go to pet homes, so saying 'there aren't enough homes for these animals" is dishonest- there never were homes for a large chunk of those animals.
The reason this discussion is so difficult is the fact that real, hard, verified statistics that cover the whole country are impossible to come by. SCPG mentioned that a search turned up figures from 3-9,000,000 pets euthanized. That's a very wide spread. A body that collected statistics from all shelters and animal controls would be very beneficial, but we don't have one as of yet. Overall birth numbers are impossible, as many litters are born at home with no veterinarian or shelter to record the birth. Population numbers again, impossible. Many dogs are not licensed even in areas where it's required. Only a small minority of cats are licensed. Many animals don't see a vet unless they're at death's door, and some don't even see one then. Any numbers you find are an estimate, and everyone, I mean everyone on all sides, has an agenda that may influence their reading of numbers. Breed statistics are difficult to come by. AKC releases breed numbers every year, but most dogs aren't AKC registered. All of this makes intelligent discussion next to impossible, although here we are trying to do it anyway.
I personally feel, that when big cities EACH normally euthanize a few hundred animals daily, and the rest of the country thousands more, it makes little sense to say there's no population problem. But perhaps it's more a breed population problem. Pit bulls make up nearly half of most urban shelter populations, along with being the dog most likely to be unwanted by potential adopters. Chihuahuas have flooded shelters in many areas in recent years, as people have begun breeding them in ridiculous numbers. In southern shelters, you find more unwanted hounds and curs. If there's no general overpopulation problem, there is a problem with overbreeding of certain breeds of dogs. Transport of regional populations of dogs to areas where they aren't so overbred can help in cases of chihuahuas or hounds, but it doesn't help the pit bull, and it doesn't help a breed of dog that has a surge of popularity due exposure in a movie or on tv. People have to breed responsibly. I don't believe we should mandate it, but we have to educate and make low cost s/n more widely available.
Absolutely, and that number doesn't include litters that are killed off, and people - it happens. Rucksack in the fishpond. It does happen. It doesn't account for the homeless animals dropped by the wayside that are killed, run over, or starve to death. Feral cats are their own population - I would imagine we have 100 in our neighborhood alone, so let's just figure up the total of what there will be in a year.
I would disagree that most pet owners are responsible, or at least not in my neck of the woods. I have RELATIVES that aren't responsible in spite of years of preaching at them. It's just so macho to have a litter, you know. Or cute for the kiddies. Whatever. But no - unless someone knows up front they themselves do not want to handle a litter of puppies or kittens, then no - most of them just drift along merrily and are totally surprised when their dog gets fat, lazy, and then drops 9 mixes in their laps. OR - even better - they put off spaying and then want to abort the litter because gee, they just didn't know Fluffy could get pregnant at 8 months old, or they had to pay for a cotillion dress and couldn't afford the spay, etc., etc.
Nope. I think people that are getting pets from the want ads or from their buddy aren't thinking about spay/neuter....and those getting male dogs are less likely to have neutering done.
As far as humans go, do you know that only about 3-5 percent of the Earths land surface is populated. Have you ever flown across the USA. Much of the land has no population. Personally I think there will be some sort of population reduction here in the future. But that is another topic all together.
I know this forum is about dogs but this such a misleading statement! 3-5 percent of the Earth's land surface is populated but how much is used for resource development such as food or energy? How much of the land surface is un-inhabitable? There are so many more factors that you cant say the earth is under-populated because we dont live on every spec of the earth's land surface.
The reason this discussion is so difficult is the fact that real, hard, verified statistics that cover the whole country are impossible to come by. SCPG mentioned that a search turned up figures from 3-9,000,000 pets euthanized. That's a very wide spread. A body that collected statistics from all shelters and animal controls would be very beneficial, but we don't have one as of yet. Overall birth numbers are impossible, as many litters are born at home with no veterinarian or shelter to record the birth. Population numbers again, impossible. Many dogs are not licensed even in areas where it's required. Only a small minority of cats are licensed. Many animals don't see a vet unless they're at death's door, and some don't even see one then. Any numbers you find are an estimate, and everyone, I mean everyone on all sides, has an agenda that may influence their reading of numbers. Breed statistics are difficult to come by. AKC releases breed numbers every year, but most dogs aren't AKC registered. All of this makes intelligent discussion next to impossible, although here we are trying to do it anyway.
I personally feel, that when big cities EACH normally euthanize a few hundred animals daily, and the rest of the country thousands more, it makes little sense to say there's no population problem. But perhaps it's more a breed population problem. Pit bulls make up nearly half of most urban shelter populations, along with being the dog most likely to be unwanted by potential adopters. Chihuahuas have flooded shelters in many areas in recent years, as people have begun breeding them in ridiculous numbers. In southern shelters, you find more unwanted hounds and curs. If there's no general overpopulation problem, there is a problem with overbreeding of certain breeds of dogs. Transport of regional populations of dogs to areas where they aren't so overbred can help in cases of chihuahuas or hounds, but it doesn't help the pit bull, and it doesn't help a breed of dog that has a surge of popularity due exposure in a movie or on tv. People have to breed responsibly. I don't believe we should mandate it, but we have to educate and make low cost s/n more widely available.
I do agree to a large extent. For one, the numbers ARE estimates and many are based on possibilities more than anything. For example, the oft-quoted 'number of puppies/kittens that one cat/dog could produce in a year.' It's a meaningless number because life doesn't work that way and if it did, we'd notice (on account of suffocating to death under the masses of puppies and kittens.)
Okay, so we can agree most numbers used in the exchanges are estimates and like all statistics, can be twisted to fit one's agenda. I do, however, stand by that overpopulation as it applies to shelter animals is a myth. As an overall group, there are more people adding pets to their families than there are pets in shelters. The margin of error on those numbers in into the millions, so I feel comfortable saying that even as estimates, there are potential homes for every last animal currently in the shelter system.
But here's where I agree with you more than my own 'side', as it were. When you consider all animals together, there is no overpopulation problem. There are, however, major supersaturation problems in some areas and among some breeds. A person in a small apartment in the city probably won't want a pitbull type dog, but that breed is probably going to form the majority of animals in their local shelter. Or perhaps they DO want a pit, but their area has BSL legislation that makes it impossible or very difficult to own one. That legislation, of course, increases the number of pit being surrendered to the local shelter. So the shelter ends up with a very high kill rate, but it isn't because there aren't possible homes for those dogs- there are. Just not in the location where those dogs happen to be.
I also stand by the idea that most people are responsible pet owners who s/n. Again, only an estimate of course, but the ASPCA's own numbers state that 85% of owned pets are s/n. However, that number is an estimate for the entire country. There are doing to be areas where that number dips down below the majority for either financial or cultural reasons. So let's say it's a rural area and people just can't afford the procedure. It's very likely their local shelter will have little funding as well and might not have the staff to run a strong adoption program. They also probably won't have the funding to support low-cost s/n programs. So that area is going to end up supersaturated with animals which in another situation might have found homes.
Point being, it is a much more complex issue than either side represents it as. For all of that, I think we really need to turn our attention to shelters and reforming them. If every shelter that wasn't doing its best or had bad policies changed, more animals would find homes and animals in supersaturated areas could be moved. Every shelter that blocks adoptions, sets bad policies, and passes harmful legislation is actually creating their own 'overpopulation' problem- and in doing so, they are breaking the network that is needed to really put a dent in the issue.
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