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

SHOPP is a Help Willy’s Friends program. Help Willy’s Friends is a nonprofit organization that collects and distributes food, money and supplies for animal shelters and rescue organizations.

SHOPP is a Help Willy’s Friends Program. Help Willy’s Friends collects and distributes food, money and supplies for animal shelters and rescue organizations.