In its July/August 2010 issue, Animal People reports that shelter kill rates are down 17% over the last 3 years despite a depressed economy that many thought would have the oppostive effect.
It was feared that the low economy would dramatically increase the number of owner turn-ins (from people who no longer could afford to have a pet) and decrease the number of new adoptions (with fewer people willing to take on the cost of a pet). The result of this would be an increase in shelter kill rates.
Whatever caused the dip in shelter kill rates is not clear and is probably the result of many factors. Still, Animal People was able to identify one important factor:
“Wherever shelter killing has markedly dropped, about 95% of the progress can be attributed to low-cost and free high-volume cat and dog sterilization – which both reduces the numbers of homeless animals and, as free-to-good home puppies and kittens vanish, increases the opportunity for shelter animals to be adopted.”It’s truly a closed-loop system – by lowering the input (through pro-active spay/neuter) you also lower the output (shelter kill rates). It’s a very simple concept that seems finally to be taking hold!
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