Shelter Animals Count is a new, collaborative initiative of animal welfare stakeholders and advocates.  They have created a national shelter animal database, designed to provide facts and raise awareness about the plight of shelter animals in the US.

4,448 shelters across the US are participating in this large-scale effort to track and analyze shelter animal data.

They have recently shared an impressive amount of data on US shelter animals for the years 2011-2017, which you can explore in detail on their website HERE.

The FACE Foundation is a non-profit with a mission to save beloved family pets from economic euthanasia due to a family’s inability to pay for all or part of the animal’s emergency or critical care veterinary expenses.

Sadly, many dogs, cats, and other companion animals are relinquished to shelters for economic reasons.  As data from Shelter Animals Count shows, owner surrender of pets is an ongoing issue for shelters.

Here is the relevant data for the years 2011-2017:

• Total number of dogs relinquished by owners: 878,460
• Total number of cats relinquished by owners: 820,476
• Total number of dogs relinquished for owner-intended euthanasia: 124,203
• Total number of cats relinquished for owner-intended euthanasia: 61,837

A total of 186,040 dogs and cats were relinquished to shelters for owner-intended euthanasia between 2011 and 2017.

It is likely that many of these animals were sick, injured, or elderly and suffering from chronic health conditions.

We thank the directors and member shelters of Shelter Animals Count for the work they are doing to save the lives of companion animals and end pet homelessness.

You can see the latest updates on the work they are doing HERE.  To register your shelter and participate in the data collection program, click HERE to learn more and sign up!