Surrendered and Stray Dogs in Australia—Estimation of Numbers Entering Municipal Pounds, Shelters and Rescue Groups and Their Outcomes
Abstract
:Simple Summary
Abstract
1. Introduction
2. Materials and Methods
2.1. Organizations
2.2. Definitions of Intake and Outcomes
2.3. Data Collection
2.4. Estimation of Unavailable Council Data
2.5. Numbers for Animal Rescue Groups
2.6. Numbers for Western Australia
2.7. Calculation of Total Numbers of Admissions and Outcome Statistics
2.8. Relationships between Council Attributes and Intakes and Outcomes
3. Results
3.1. Availability of Data and Contributions of Imputed Data
3.2. National Results
3.3. Comparisons between States
3.4. Comparisons within Organizations between States
3.4.1. Municipal Councils
3.4.2. RSPCA
3.4.3. Other Welfare Organizations
3.5. Trends over Time
4. Discussion
4.1. Admissions Nationally
4.2. Admissions by State
4.3. Admissions by Agency
4.4. Strategies to Reduce Intake
4.5. Reclaim Percentage Nationally
4.6. Reclaim Percentages by State/Territory
4.7. Reclaim by Agency
4.8. Rehoming—National
4.9. Rehoming—State and Agency Comparisons
4.10. Transfer—National, State and Agency Comparisons
4.11. Euthanasia—National and State Comparisons
4.12. Euthanasia—Agency Comparisons
4.13. Data Quality
4.14. Contribution of Rescue Groups
4.15. Limitations of Study
5. Conclusions
Acknowledgments
Author Contributions
Conflicts of Interest
Abbreviations
RSPCA | Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals |
LDH | Lost Dogs’ Home |
AWL | Animal Welfare League |
USA | The United States of America |
Appendix A
State or Territory | Aggregated Data for State/Territory: Available (Yes/No) /Source | No. of Municipal Councils Participating/No. in State Excluding Those Known to Not Have or Run Pound Facilities | Source of Council Information | No. of Welfare Organizations (Thought to Have ≥1000 Dog Intake Per Year) Participating/No. in State | Participating Welfare Organizations Included | Welfare Organization’s Information Sourced from: | Other Included Rescue Groups in the State |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Western Australia | No | 9/140 (Numbers of municipal councils that did not have pound facilities or whose pounds were operated by another organization were not determined.) | Individual municipal councils by direct approach | 1/1 | RSPCA |
| Rescue groups (imputed) |
Northern Territory | No | 5/8 (The remaining 8 municipal councils did not have pound facilities) | Individual municipal councils by direct approach | 1/1 | RSPCA |
| Rescue groups (imputed) |
South Australia | Yes/Collated council data | 74/74 (As aggregated data were available, numbers of municipal councils that did not have pound facilities or whose pounds were operated by another organization were not determined.) | Dog and Cat Management Board | 2/2 | RSPCA, AWL |
| Rescue groups (imputed) |
Queensland | No | 9/64 (6 of the remaining 14 municipal councils did not have pound facilities and 8 councils’ pounds were operated by another organization) | Individual municipal councils by direct approach | 3/3 | RSPCA, AWL, LDH |
| Rescue groups (imputed) |
New South Wales | Yes/annual reports | 152/152 (As aggregated data were available, numbers of municipal councils that did not have pound facilities or whose pounds were operated by another organization were not determined.) | Department of the Premier and CabinetMost recent available-2011–2012 report [21] Max for Justice (transfer numbers to rescue groups) | 3/3 | RSPCA Lost Dogs Home (LDH) Animal Welfare League (AWL) |
| Max4JusticeRescue groups (imputed) |
Australian Capital Territory | Yes/single pound operated by Domestic Animal Services | 1/1 | Domestic Animal Services | 1/1 | RSPCA |
| Rescue groups (imputed) |
Victoria | No | 32/38 (The remaining 41 municipal councils’ pounds were operated by another organization) | Domestic Animal Management Plan on individual council websites (various years depending on council 2006 to 2013) | 5/6 | RSPCA, LDH, Animal Aid Victoria, Lort Smith Hospital and Save-a-Dog |
| Rescue groups (imputed) |
Tasmania | No | 7/19 (The remaining 10 municipal councils’ pounds were operated by RSPCA or Dogs’ Home of Tasmania) | 2/2 | RSPCA Dogs’ Home of Tasmania |
| Rescue groups (imputed) |
Over-Reporting of Numbers | Under-Reporting of Numbers |
---|---|
Potential double counting where inability to separate pound and shelter data exists (welfare agencies contracted to run council pounds). e.g., Launceston pound is operated by RSPCA and data were probably included in shelter statistics. LDH runs pound services for multiple councils in Queensland, where pound data is included in shelter statistics. | Unavailable data/lack of transparency from municipal councils and pounds through non-responses, delayed responses, unavailable data categories. e.g., Justice for Max was unable to separate the rescue data that have been submitted by the rescue groups by species, resulting in an estimation of the number of dog admissions by the rescue organizations. e.g., lack of response from large numbers of councils in Western Australia, where only 9/140 councils provided data on request. |
Possible transfers of dogs across states/shelters within the same state. e.g., Dogs’ Home of Tasmania transferred dogs among their 3 facilities, while others, including RSPCA and AWL, move animals across state borders. These transferred animals might be double counted in both states. | Some municipal councils’ management practice of returning dogs that were reclaimed by owners by without being housed in the organization’s facilities. These dogs were most likely excluded in that organization’s intake numbers. |
Some organizations collate data from multiple sites, such as transfers from different pounds, resulting in re-admission of same dogs. | |
Discrepancy in the numbers, often associated with “other outcomes”, which can result in over or under-reporting of data. e.g., dogs in foster care, differences in reporting periods (calendar versus financial), dogs that died/escaped and dogs already impounded before the initiation of the reporting period with a subsequent recorded outcome. | |
Extrapolation process to account for potential over/under reporting can introduce some variances. e.g., the numbers of animals in care may have been either over- or under-stated. This has been accounted by for each state and territory (the sum of these assumed discrepancies was specifically listed in results and added or deducted from the total number of admissions), based on the relevant scenario described, and hence results in under/over reporting of data. | |
Other issues affecting the accuracy of reporting.
|
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State/Territory & Organization | No. Admissions (Intake) | No. Reclaimed | No. Rehomed | No. with Other Outcome 1 | No. Transferred | No. Euthanized | In-care Population (Start of yr) | In-care Population (End of yr) | Assumed Overstated Intake 2 | Assumed Understated Intake 3 | % Reclaimed | % Rehomed | % Rehomed (of Unclaimed) | % live Release 4 | % Euthanized | % Euthanized (of Unclaimed) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
NEW SOUTH WALES (human population 7,307,183) | ||||||||||||||||
Municipal councils pooled | 46,486 | 19,867 | 4781 | 0 | 9279 | 11,945 | 614 | 0 | 43% | 10% | 18% | 74% | 26% | 46% | ||
RSPCA | 10,438 | 1208 | 4693 | 45 | 452 | 4021 | 633 | 652 | 0 | 0 | 12% | 45% | 51% | 61% | 39% | 44% |
AWL | 1074 | 0 | 904 | 0 | 31 | 139 | 0 | 0 | 0% | 84% | 84% | 87% | 13% | 13% | ||
Animal rescue groups pooled | 8630 | 0 | 8457 | 0 | 0 | 173 | 0 | 0 | 0% | 98% | 98% | 98% | 2% | 2% | ||
No. admissions for state 5 | 56,252 | 21,082 | 18,842 | 45 | 16,283 | |||||||||||
Number per 1000 human residents/% of admissions where outcome was known | 7.7 | 2.9 | 2.6 | 0.0 | 2.2 | 37% | 33% | 54% | 71% | 29% | 46% | |||||
VICTORIA (human population 5,632,521) | ||||||||||||||||
Municipal councils pooled | 18,720 | 11,505 | 3162 | 0 | 680 | 3155 | 469 | 250 | 62% | 17% | 45% | 83% | 17% | 45% | ||
RSPCA | 12,882 | 7259 | 3636 | 43 | 11 | 1973 | 525 | 485 | 0 | 0 | 56% | 28% | 64% | 84% | 15% | 35% |
Animal Aid Victoria | 3043 | 1983 | 724 | 0 | 0 | 317 | 19 | 0 | 66% | 24% | 70% | 90% | 10% | 30% | ||
Save a Dog | 1061 | 964 | 486 | 0 | 0 | 14 | 0 | 403 | 66% | 33% | 97% | 99% | 1% | 3% | ||
Lost Dogs Homes | 12,933 | 8253 | 2319 | 0 | 104 | 2279 | 0 | 22 | 64% | 18% | 49% | 82% | 18% | 48% | ||
Lort Smith Animal Hospital (AWL) | 242 | 0 | 127 | 0 | 94 | 21 | 0 | 0 | 0% | 52% | 52% | 91% | 9% | 9% | ||
Animal rescue groups pooled | 6652 | 0 | 6519 | 0 | 0 | 133 | 0 | 0 | 0% | 98% | 98% | 98% | 2% | 2% | ||
No. admissions for state 5 | 54,831 | 29,942 | 16,960 | 43 | 7886 | |||||||||||
Number per 1000 human residents/% of admissions where outcome was known | 9.7 | 5.3 | 3.0 | 0.0 | 1.4 | 55% | 31% | 68% | 86% | 14% | 32% | |||||
SOUTH AUSTRALIA (human population 1,656,035) | ||||||||||||||||
Municipal councils pooled | 7723 | 5412 | 536 | 0 | 757 | 1018 | 0 | 0 | 70% | 7% | 23% | 87% | 13% | 44% | ||
RSPCA | 3879 | 1800 | 1043 | 11 | 2 | 618 | 0 | 0 | 52% | 30% | 62% | 82% | 18% | 37% | ||
Animal Welfare League | 5248 | 1998 | 1155 | 0 | 24 | 2064 | 7 | 0 | 38% | 22% | 36% | 61% | 39% | 64% | ||
Animal rescue groups pooled | 1956 | 0 | 1917 | 0 | 0 | 39 | 0 | 0 | 0% | 98% | 98% | 98% | 2% | 2% | ||
No. admissions for state 5 | 14,833 | 7757 | 3917 | 9 | 3150 | |||||||||||
Number per 1000 human residents/% of admissions where outcome was known | 9.0 | 4.7 | 2.4 | 0.0 | 1.9 | 52% | 26% | 55% | 79% | 21% | 45% | |||||
AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY (human population 375,200) | ||||||||||||||||
Domestic Animal Services | 1439 | 772 | 426 | 0 | 16 | 225 | 0 | 0 | 54% | 30% | 64% | 84% | 16% | 34% | ||
RSPCA | 1730 | 1072 | 389 | 9 | 152 | 132 | 100 | 76 | 0 | 0 | 61% | 22% | 57% | 92% | 8% | 19% |
Animal rescue groups pooled | 443 | 0 | 434 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0% | 98% | 98% | 98% | 2% | 2% | ||
No. admissions for state 5 | 3444 | 1831 | 1241 | 9 | 363 | |||||||||||
Number per 1000 human residents/% of admissions where outcome was known | 9.2 | 4.9 | 3.3 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 53% | 36% | 77% | 89% | 11% | 23% | |||||
QUEENSLAND (human population 4,568,205) | ||||||||||||||||
Municipal councils pooled (excluding councils where RSPCA or other animal welfare organization runs pound) | 26,278 | 14,657 | 2524 | 0 | 7412 | 4412 | 311 | 3038 | 51% | 9% | 18% | 85% | 15% | 31% | ||
Animal Welfare League QLD | 5233 | 2169 | 1829 | 0 | 127 | 1095 | 24 | 0 | 42% | 35% | 60% | 79% | 21% | 36% | ||
Lost Dogs Home (Wirra & Willawong) | 3612 | 2512 | 342 | 0 | 29 | 743 | 0 | 14 | 69% | 9% | 31% | 80% | 20% | 67% | ||
RSPCA (added 908 request euthanasia) | 16,150 | 5568 | 5809 | 134 | 717 | 3907 | 746 | 761 | 0 | 0 | 35% | 36% | 55% | 75% | 24% | 37% |
Animal rescue groups pooled | 5395 | 0 | 5287 | 0 | 0 | 108 | 0 | 0 | 0% | 98% | 98% | 98% | 2% | 2% | ||
No. admissions for state 5 | 51,100 | 24,908 | 15,792 | 134 | 10,266 | |||||||||||
Number per 1000 human residents/% of admissions where outcome was known | 11.2 | 5.5 | 3.5 | 0.0 | 2.2 | 49% | 31% | 60% | 80% | 20% | 39% | |||||
NORTHERN TERRITORY (human population 235,881) | ||||||||||||||||
Municipal councils pooled | 3139 | 1753 | 92 | 0 | 550 | 475 | 283 | 15 | 61% | 3% | 8% | 83% | 17% | 43% | ||
RSPCA | 496 | 94 | 253 | 0 | 0 | 106 | 50 | 93 | 0 | 0 | 21% | 56% | 70% | 77% | 23% | 30% |
Animal rescue groups pooled | 279 | 0 | 273 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0% | 98% | 98% | 98% | 2% | 2% | ||
No. admissions for state 5 | 3095 | 1873 | 627 | 0 | 595 | |||||||||||
Number per 1000 human residents/% of admissions where outcome was known | 13.1 | 7.9 | 2.7 | 0.0 | 2.5 | 61% | 20% | 51% | 81% | 19% | 49% | |||||
WESTERN AUSTRALIA (human population 2,437,994) | ||||||||||||||||
Municipal councils pooled | 19,144 | 10,536 | 4052 | 29 | 0 | 4489 | ||||||||||
RSPCA | 713 | 303 | 254 | 0 | 0 | 163 | 101 | 94 | ||||||||
Animal rescue groups pooled | 2879 | 0 | 2822 | 58 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||
No. admissions for state 5 | 22,707 | 10,839 | 7128 | 29 | 4710 | |||||||||||
Number per 1000 human residents/% of admissions where outcome was known | 9.3 | 4.4 | 2.9 | 0.0 | 1.9 | 48% | 31% | 60% | 79% | 21% | 40% | |||||
TASMANIA (human population 512,106) | ||||||||||||||||
Municipal councils pooled (other than those whose pounds were run by Dogs’ Home of Tasmania or RSPCA) | 2251 | 1783 | 21 | 0 | 345 | 101 | 0 | 79% | 1% | 5% | 96% | 4% | 22% | |||
Dogs’ Home of Tasmania | 1673 | 422 | 810 | 0 | 0 | 205 | 312 | 29% | 56% | 80% | 86% | 14% | 20% | |||
RSPCA | 1522 | 652 | 550 | 5 | 0 | 343 | 102 | 74 | 0 | 42% | 35% | 61% | 78% | 22% | 38% | |
Animal rescue groups pooled | 605 | 0 | 593 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 0 | 0% | 98% | 98% | 98% | 2% | 2% | |||
No. admissions for state 5 | 5393 | 2803 | 1937 | 5 | 649 | |||||||||||
Number per 1000 human residents/% of admissions where outcome was known | 10.5 | 5.5 | 3.8 | 0.0 | 1.3 | 52% | 36% | 75% | 88% | 12% | 25% | |||||
NATIONAL (human population 22,725,125) | ||||||||||||||||
No. admissions 5 | 211,655 | 101,037 | 66,443 | 275 | 43,900 | |||||||||||
Number per 1000 human residents/% of admissions where outcome was known | 9.3 | 4.4 | 2.9 | 0.0 | 1.9 | 48% | 31% | 60% | 79% | 21% | 40% | |||||
AGENCIES NATIONALLY | ||||||||||||||||
All councils across states | 125,149 | 66,286 | 15,594 | 29 | 19,040 | 25,820 | 52% | 12% | 26% | 80% | 20% | 43% | ||||
RSPCA National | 47,810 | 17,956 | 16,627 | 247 | 1334 | 11,263 | 38% | 35% | 56% | 76% | 24% | 38% | ||||
Other welfare agencies combined | 34,119 | 18,301 | 8696 | 0 | 409 | 6877 | 53% | 25% | 54% | 80% | 20% | 43% | ||||
Animal rescue groups pooled | 26,839 | 0 | 26,302 | 58 | 0 | 479 | 0% | 98% | 98% | 98% | 2% | 2% | ||||
Combined RSPCA & welfare orgs | 44% | 31% | 56% | 77% | 22% | 40% |
Organizations | Year | No. of Dog Admissions | % Decrease | No. of Dogs Euthanized | % Decrease |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Municipal councils pooled | 2009–2010 | 49,958 | 15,461 | ||
2010–2011 | 48,427 | 3.1 | 13,661 | 11.6 | |
2011–2012 | 46,486 | 4.0 | 11,945 | 12.6 | |
% decrease over 2 years 1 | 6.9 | 22.7 | |||
RSPCA | 2009–2010 | 21,328 | 8361 | ||
2010–2011 | 20,959 | 1.73 | 8209 | 1.8 | |
2011–2012 | 11,989 | 42.8 | 4862 | 40.8 | |
% decrease over 2 years 1 | 43.8 | 41.8 | |||
Animal Welfare League | 2009–2010 | 1882 | 887 | ||
2010–2011 | 1816 | 3.5 | 717 | 19.2 | |
2011–2012 | 1427 | 21.4 | 297 | 58.6 | |
% decrease over 2 years 1 | 24.2 | 66.5 |
© 2017 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
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Chua, D.; Rand, J.; Morton, J. Surrendered and Stray Dogs in Australia—Estimation of Numbers Entering Municipal Pounds, Shelters and Rescue Groups and Their Outcomes. Animals 2017, 7, 50. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani7070050
Chua D, Rand J, Morton J. Surrendered and Stray Dogs in Australia—Estimation of Numbers Entering Municipal Pounds, Shelters and Rescue Groups and Their Outcomes. Animals. 2017; 7(7):50. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani7070050
Chicago/Turabian StyleChua, Diana, Jacquie Rand, and John Morton. 2017. "Surrendered and Stray Dogs in Australia—Estimation of Numbers Entering Municipal Pounds, Shelters and Rescue Groups and Their Outcomes" Animals 7, no. 7: 50. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani7070050