Alarming Trends in California’s Municipal Shelter Euthanasia Rates

Problem

California has now become the #1 State for most animals euthanized in shelters in America and the #1 State in the homeless animals population. Not a #1 spot to be proud of.

High euthanasia rates are back to California municipal shelters after they were thought to be defeated decades back.

Yet The Orange County Register’s Teri Sforza reported on data analyzed by a former volunteer and found the “kill rate for adult dogs…has nearly doubled since 2018, and the amount of time they spend behind bars has jumped 60 percent: Reason.com

Prior covid onset, euthanasia rates were steadily declining over past several decades

According to Shelter Animal Count, California records the highest municipal shelter euthanasia rates in the United States, peaking at 17% over three years (Average rate in the US – 8.5%) . However, published Californian statistics are far from being comprehensive, as are derived from only around 40% of shelters that voluntarily submitted their data, indicating alarmingly incomplete information.

In 2023, from 200 + California government animal services, shelters, and rescues holding government contracts, only 77, or 38.5%, submitted any of their animal statistics to the Shelters Animal Count database. Even more concerning, only 63, amounting to a mere 25.2%, reported statistics for the entire year. This glaring lack of reporting implies that a significant 70-75% of California’s animal intake and outcome data from these crucial organizations remains unaccounted for. Considering that 85% of all animal intakes in California occur within shelters, the true extent of the issue is obscured. It’s evident that many of the state’s highest euthanasia rate shelters opt not to disclose their statistics, suggesting that the actual intakes and euthanasia rate in California is likely substantially higher. Remarkably, even in 2019, a greater number of organizations were reporting their statistics.

What’s even more troubling is the discovery that many shelters have been actively declining animal intakes from the public. This suggests that actual numbers could easily be double!

In some shelters the response to full facilities has been euthanizing thousands of healthy, adoptable animals, including puppies and kittens along with young adult dogs and cats, as an “answer” to the problem.

Only some shelters may offer limited reports on their individual websites, while others refrain from disclosing any statistics altogether.

Take San Bernardino County for instance, which is renowned for its numerous shelters often labeled as ‘high-kill’ by the public. Surprisingly, only one shelter in the area, The Town of Apple Valley Animal Services Department, was found to share partial statistics on its website, although not with www.shelteranimalscount.org. Their disclosed data for the last quarter of 2023 revealed a distressing total non-alive outcome of 57.05% for the animals they took in during that period. Shockingly, certain shelters, including the Devore Animal Shelter, speculated to have one of the highest euthanasia rates, have no reported statistics available anywhere online. This glaring gap underscores the urgent need for increased transparency and a more comprehensive reporting system.

A few more considerations: The above https://www.shelteranimalscount.org/ statistics are put together based on voluntary shelters reporting. The number of shelters who had provided data to this Agency has decreased overtime. In 2023 there were only 240 participating organizations, while in 2019 there were 313 participants.

Given the lack of reporting by shelters and the refusal to accept animals from the public, as well as terminated by shelters Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) programs in 2023, it's likely that the actual number of homeless animals is much higher than reported.

Moreover, some municipal shelters, for example the Los Banos Animal Shelter on 1010 Airport Rd, Los Banos, CA, don’t even have a website. For these shelters, the only lifeline for the overcrowded animals is through facebook networking. Despite shelter employees reaching out to rescues for help in saving dogs from euthanasia due to overwhelming numbers, there’s no means to obtain official statistics. This highlights a critical gap in information dissemination and underscores the dire circ*mstances faced by animals in such facilities.

One of the Shelter Workers’ pleas that was received by a Rescue. Luckily Quinn was saved. But many are not as lucky, because Rescues are full.

Shelter DATA:

California homeless animals intakes and euthanasia rates show a consistent growing trend starting in 2021., with startling yearly euthanasia growth between 4-25 % across different shelters.

Some of the ‘non-alive outcomes’ Levels for 2023 ( from Shelters Websites):

Town of Apple Valley Animal Services – 55.84 %

Los Banos, Animal Services -30.72 %

LA County Animal Care Services – 31.28 %

Fresno Humane Animal Services – 32.23 %

Kern County Animal Services– 24.44 %

Contra Costa Animal Services – 17.30 %

San Jose Animal Care Services – 16.57 %

More data

Alarming Trends in California’s Municipal Shelter Euthanasia Rates – Animal Rescuers For Change (2024)

Problem

High euthanasia rates are back to California municipal shelters after they were thought to be defeated decades back.

Given the lack of reporting by shelters and the refusal to accept animals from the public, as well as terminated by shelters Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) programs in 2023, it's likely that the actual number of homeless animals is much higher than reported.