Shelters Kill More Dogs than They Save

When you think of a dog shelter, do you imagine a refuge or a prison?

What if I told you whenever you call animal services, or when you leave a dog at a shelter, you might as well have pulled the trigger yourself.

What to Do if I Find a Lost Dog?

That statement might be triggering, but it’s the truth. Let me ask you this..

What would you do if you found a lost dog? Would you pretend it wasn’t there? Would you bring it home with you? Or would you call animal control?

Most people would put in minimal effort, maybe a quick call to the authorities and off they go.

But according to a study from shelteranimalscount.org only about 20% of dogs are actually returned to their owner, the other 80%? Well, maybe they get adopted but chances are low.

shelteranimalscount.org study

Only about 50% of dogs are actually adopted from animal shelters, the rest of them, if they haven’t been returned to their owner, are transferred around from shelter to shelter until the inevitable happens.

The dog is put out of its misery.

If you actually care about dogs, you need to take action and not simply rely on an overpopulated system to protect these dogs.

Shelters do what they can, and I’m glad they do what they do, but they are simply overwhelmed.

If I found a stray dog in a neighborhood, I would personally go door to door and ask everyone if they know who the dog belongs to. According to a study from ASPCA, 49% of lost dogs were found in their neighborhood. So, flip a coin, if it’s heads you just saved this dogs life.

If that doesn’t work, bring the dog to a vet and have them check for a microchip, 15% of lost dogs were found this way.

Only 6% of dogs were found from a shelter, so this should absolutely be a last resort. Although, I’m not sure if the dogs’ odds are better at a shelter or on its own. I couldn’t say, it would be a tough decision for me to make.

If I were in that position, I would honestly rather bring the dog home with me. If you decide to do that yourself, you should still notify local animal shelters about the lost dog that way if their family goes looking for them, they know where to find them.

How Many Lost Dogs Are There?

If you didn’t hear what I just said, please rewind this video and watch it again because you are going to be in this situation and have to make this decision eventually. It’s a sad reality and completely true.

When someone decides they don’t want a puppy anymore, either due to the cost, housing limits, family issues or pet problems, what do you think they do with the puppy?

Well, some give it away to friends or put it in puppy prison but according to ASPCA’s national rehoming survey, nearly 1% of dogs are just “set free”. In other words, abandoned.

ASPCA’s National Rehoming Survey

This number may seem small but when nearly 5% of dog owners rehome their pets and over 76 million pets have homes, that’s roughly 38,000 abandoned puppy’s.

According to animalleague.org, 2 puppies can multiply into 67,000 in 6 years.

If 2 puppies can turn into that many, imagine what 38,000 can do.

Why are There so Many Dogs? | Issues With Breeders

You might be wondering how we ended up with so many dogs and the answer is simple, greed.

As the saying goes “the pursuit of money is the root of all evil”, and that couldn’t be any more true.

You see, for a certain type of people, dogs aren’t family, they don’t love them, dogs are simply a means to and end.

You know when you go to the grocery store, grab something off a shelf and toss in the cart? To you, that item is not family, you don’t love it, it’s simply a product to consume.

That mindset is how dog breeders think about dogs. They are a business and dogs are a product, nothing else.

According to Humane Society of the United States, roughly 213,978 dogs are kept for breeding purposes, of those, 139,086 are females. They have each female dog produce roughly 9.4 puppies. That’s 1,307,407 puppy mil puppys per year.

Over half of those female puppies are “worn out” each year. What do you think happens to them?

Well, they are old, probably sick too, according to veterinarians.org, Mill puppies are 41.6% more likely to develop health issues than the general population of dogs.

So, pet stores won’t buy them, people are less likely to adopt them from a shelter, that leaves one option.

There’s no way to actually know, as a lot of puppy mills aren’t even regulated, but I’m pretty confident most of the female puppies that are “worn out” are being euthanized and replaced.

And worn out doesn’t mean sick and dying, no, they could be perfectly fine dogs with many years left to live, but they no longer produce puppies or not enough puppies per year to be profitable.

What Can We Do to Help?

As horrible as that sounds, puppy mills aren’t even the problem, we are.

According to a APPA study, nearly 34% of dogs are obtain from a breeder. Another 12% said private party which probably means a pet store and 90% of those puppies come from puppy mills.

APPA study

A survey from cleveland.com shows that 75% of people got their dog either from a breeder or a pet store.

cleveland.com survey

And that’s not even the worst part. You see, we are buying all these puppies from these evil breeders and then kicking them to the curb.

According to sheltersanimalscount.org, which surveyed over 1,000 animal shelters, nearly 1/4 of all dogs they receive came from owners just giving up on them.

shelteranimalscount.org study

Over 3.1 million dogs enter shelters each year. And licensed puppy mills produce 1,307,407 dogs each year.

Maybe I’m insane for thinking this, but if you actually cared about dogs, you would do your part to save over 1 million dogs per year.

How? Well, if you want a dog, adopt one. NEVER buy from a puppy mill, breeder or pet store. Put this greedy, evil industry out of business.

And don’t give up on your dog. I know times can get tough, but you got to do everything you can for that dog.

Sending it to an animal shelter should be the last thing on your mind because if you do that, if you lock your dog up, flip a coin, heads he lives, tails, he doesn’t.

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