At Pawlytics we love data. Naturally, we were thrilled to get to dig in to the trove of shelter data collected by Shelter Animals Count to get an in-depth understanding of how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the animal sheltering industry.
As the pandemic hit full swing prompting a global quarantine, pets became the unsung heroes keeping those stuck at home company with companionship and a sense of purpose as regular social gatherings became nonexistent.
As animal shelters were cleared thanks to a spike in adoptions and fostering, concerns of what would happen to all these pets post quarantine began to circulate. These concerns prompted alarmist headlines in the media exclaiming all these pets would be returned and subsequently potentially euthanized.
We wanted to know the truth to prepare the animal sheltering community. We dug into the numbers provided by Shelter Animals Count to compare pre, during, and post quarantine times at a national animal sheltering level.
Based on our analysis, it appears that 2021 is following a normal pre-pandemic trend as of June 2021. The data shows that more people are keeping their pets, transferring pets between organizations is gaining popularity, shelter euthanasia has hit an all time low, and pet adoption from shelters and rescues has maintained its mid-pandemic strength, contrary to some claims made by the media.
Some key statistics from the study:
- Intake numbers remain 23.7% lower post pandemic than pre pandemic
- The proportion of pets making it out of the shelter alive has increased every year with 89.3%of all outcomes in 2021 being live outcomes versus 85% in 2019.
- Owner intended euthanasia remained strong due to the shortage of veterinarians and their appointment hours, leaving people to turn to their local shelters for humane euthanasia of their sick or aging pets.
Take a deep dive into the analysis by downloading our white paper here!