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U.S. Pet Overpopulation Facts

•Estimates of the number of homeless dogs and cats top 70 million – 45 times more cats and 15 times more dogs than humans. 

•There are only about 3,500 animal shelters – not enough to take in this extraordinary number of animals in need.

•Approximately 6 to 8 million stray dogs and cats enter shelters each year.

•About 3.7 million animals in shelters (one every eight seconds) are euthanized each year because homes cannot be found for them.   

•Overpopulation is caused by:

◦Pets not being spay/neutered 

◦Pets that are intentionally bred (every purchased pet is one that will not be adopted in a shelter – and every purchased pet has the potential to be entered into a shelter, increasing shelter and overpopulation numbers)

◦Pets being acquired by owners who are not prepared to spend the time and money necessary to support the animal, so they are entered into a shelter or abandoned 

•Over 25 percent of dogs in shelters are purebred.   

What You Can do to Help

•Get your pet spayed/neutered 

•Adopt your pets from a reputable animal shelter or rescue organization

•Educate yourself about the time and money necessary to care for an animal BEFORE you adopt   

SPREAD THE WORD about the animal overpopulation problem in the U.S. GET INVOLVED.

Sources: American human.org; aspca.org; humanesociety.org; spayusa.org