Prince George's County Animal Management Division kills about 6,000 healthy, adoptable animals every year, and has been doing so for the decade since the current database system was installed, and before.
"Nobody WANTS to kill healthy pets" we are told, so why does it happen? Let's explore the first of the reasons that are often given -- the "Pet Overpopulation Problem."
Premise:
"Too Many Pets, Not Enough Homes"
This idea is generally accepted without question. It should be examined, however, because it is a premise that can be tested by empirical evidence. It can be reduced to a mathematical relationship that can easily be proven true or false. It assumes that the number of pets available for adoption is larger than the number of homes looking for pets.
Premise:
Number of Pets Available > Number of Homes Available
But, is that true?
This is where this blog post either gets to be very interesting reading, or you move on to the next one. If you love numbers, read on. If you are bored by numbers, but stick with it, I think that it will be worthwhile. Otherwise, ask your local nerd to take a calculator and verify my sources and my math, then meet me down at the "First Number Found" heading below.
So, just how many homes are available for pets? The U.S. Census says, as of this writing, that Prince George's County had 302,091 households during the period of 2007-2011. (Note 1) Of course, not all households have pets, and some have more than one, so we look to the American Veterinary Medical Association's Market Research Statistics. (Note 2) We will assume that Prince George's County approximates the U.S. average (actually it's probably better than average), and we will be referring to dogs and cats only, since they comprise 90% of all pets.
(If your eyes are beginning to glaze over, read this post very carefully, because there are some offers of free gifts interjected in the text. See if you can find them.)
Dogs: 36.5% of the 302,091 households (110,263) have 1.6 dogs per household (176,421). This is the number of dogs who are estimated to live in Prince George's County households.
Cats: 30.4% of the 302,091 households (91,835) have 2.1 cats per household (192,855). This is the number of cats who are estimated to live in Prince George's County households.
Sadly, our beloved pet friends do not live forever. The life expectancy of dogs varies by breed size and the life expectancy of medium size dogs is 10 to 13 years. (Note 3) Cats live 15 to 17 years on average. (Note 4) Let's assume an average 11.5 year lifespan for dogs, and 16 year lifespan for cats. This means that, ...
Of the 176,421 dogs in Prince George's County, 1/11.5 (15,341) will die each year.
Of the 192,855 cats in Prince George's County, 1/16 (12,053) will pass on each year.
This also means that 27,394 pets (15,341 dogs + 12,053 cats) will need to be replaced every year in the county, in order to maintain a constant rate of pet ownership. (Although not everyone replaces a beloved pet immediately, and some people decide NOT to replace a pet that has died, others decide to obtain a companion for the first time, so the rate of pet ownership remains roughly constant over time.)
First Number Found
This is one of the numbers in our relationship. In Prince George's County households, 27,394 pets die every year. From an economic point of view, there is a DEMAND for approximately 27,394 dogs and cats every year to replace them.
(For a visual, please click on the first of the three charts in the slide show at the top of this post.)
Premise:
Number of Pets Available > Number of Homes Available
Number of Pets Available > 27,394
We are half way there. Since there are approximately 27,394 pet homes becoming vacant every year due to pet mortality, if the premise is true that there are "Too Many Pets, Not Enough Homes", there must be MORE THAN 27,394 pets available every year. When we use the term "pets" below, we will be referring to dogs and cats.
(Did you find the offers of free gifts yet? If not, read on.)
To determine the number of pets available at the Animal Management Division Facility in Upper Marlboro, we refer to the data in the AMD database. (Note 5)
During the calendar year of 2012, AMD "handled" 10,758 pets. After subtracting out 956 carcasses of animals that arrived at the facility DOA, AMD took in about 9,802 live pets. Happily, 977 pets were returned to their owners. Yeah!!! That left 8,825 pets. We know that 29 pets were "Euthanized at a Vet Hospital", so we can be pretty certain that these animals were enduring suffering which could not be relieved. Now we are down to 8,796 pets that are candidates for adoption.
Whoa!!! This is the second number that we were looking for. The Prince George's County Animal Management Division had a SUPPLY of 8,796 pets available for adoption in 2012.
(For an updated visual, please click on the second of the three charts in the slide show at the top of this post.)
Premise:
Number of Pets Available > Number of Homes Available
8,796 > 27,394
FALSE!!!
The Prince George's County AMD data says that if all 8,796 pets had been adopted from the ASF, that would have been a 100% adoption rate, but would still have met less than 1/3 of the demand for pets by Prince George's County Residents.
If ONLY, ...
Sadly, of the 8,796 pets who were available, only 1,128 were ADOPTED from the Animal Services Facility. (This means that a potential adopter came into the ASF, filled out an application, selected a pet, was approved, and took the pet home.) From the marketing point of view, this also means that, considering the demand for 27,394 pets by county residents, AMD satisfied only about 4% of the market share.
(For an updated visual, please click on the third of the three charts in the slide show at the top of this post.)
This is what happens in spite of AMD having a brand new 37,000 sq. ft. building, a budget of over $3 Million (even after cutbacks), a staff of several dozen employees, some of whom are paid about $130,000 per year, and all of the power and influence of a county agency.
Down Goes The "Too Many Pets, Not Enough Homes" Excuse!
This myth falls to the numbers which do not support it. One down, but there are other excuses which are given for the killing of about 6,000 animals every year. We will save the discussion of the others for another post.
If you have read through this post once, but not found the offers for free gifts, please read the post over again. If you have read all the way through several times, ok, I admit, there are no offers of free gifts, that was just to get you to read this long post carefully. As a consolation prize, however, if you hit the BACK button on your browser to go to the main page for the No Kill Prince George's County MD blog, and then click on Subscribe, Patch.com will automatically send you all future posts to this blog at no charge!
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Note 1) www.census.gov QuickFacts for Prince George's County, Maryland
http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/24/24033.html
Note 2) 2012 U.S. Pet Ownership & Demographics Sourcebook as quoted by the American Veterinary Medical Association
https://www.avma.org/KB/Resources/Statistics/Pages/Market-research-statistics-US-pet-ownership.aspx
Note 3) Wikipedia. "Aging in Dogs" "... smaller dogs often live over 15–16 years, medium and large size dogs typically 10 to 13 years, and some giant dog breeds such as mastiffs, often only 7 to 8 years."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aging_in_dogs
Note 4) Wikipedia. "Cat Years" "The life expectancy of a cat is typically 15–17 years."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_years
Note 5) Provided by AMD in response to a Maryland Public Information Act Request.
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Tim Saffell is the President of Prince Georges Feral Friends, SPCA, www.PGFerals.org, which sponsors No Kill Prince George’s County MD www.NoKillPrinceGeorgesCountyMD.org .