Animal Shelter Statistics USA

The country’s animal shelters work tirelessly to secure happy lives for cats and dogs who, for one reason or another, have ended up without the home and family environment that’s best for them. But just how stretched are they? And how many people have animal shelters at the front of their minds when seeking out their new pet.

We did some research, surveyed 2,000 Americans and crunched the numbers to bring you 2021’s USA Animal Shelter Statistics.

The Quick Version of our Findings

63% of people in the USA would visit their local shelter if they were looking for a new dog
63,000 searches are made in Google USA every single month for “Craigslist Puppies,” but this number hit 90,500 in April, May and June 2020 at the height of the Covid pandemic
The number of monthly Google searches in the USA for “animal shelters near me” is up from 60,500 in January 2017 to a huge 823,000 in January 2021.
Approximately 6.5 million cats and dogs end up in animal shelters every single year in the USA according to the ASPCA

Read on to find out more about these statistics and additional detail we uncovered in our research and survey.

Where do People go Looking for a New Dog?

We asked 2,000 people in the USA the following question:

If you were looking for a new dog now, how would you go about finding one? (Check all that apply)
- I would visit or contact my local animal shelter and rescue one
- I would find a puppy breeder and buy a puppy
- I would check local classified listings to see if I can rehome one privately
- Other (please specify)
- Not sure

We gave people the option to choose more than one of these and also to suggest other ways they might also go about looking for a puppy.

Here’s what the US public told us.

Answer	% who would do this (overall)	% of women only who would do this	% of men only who would do this
I would visit or contact my local animal shelter and rescue one	63.16%	65.33%	60.90%
I would find a puppy breeder and buy a puppy	26.02%	22.17%	30.04%
I would check local classified listings to see if I can rehome one privately	30.01%	30.45%	29.59%

Almost two thirds would make a local animal shelter at least one port of call in finding their new dog, which is excellent news for shelters full of dogs desperate for new homes.

Women are slightly likelier than men to make the shelter a port of call.

And it appears men are notably likelier to lean towards heading for a puppy breeder, with almost a third of those surveyed saying they would do this (compared to just over 1 in 5 women).

The Craigslist Route

30% of people in the USA would head for classifieds websites when looking for a new dog.

That comes with a number of warnings from organizations such as PETA who advise would-be pet owners that such sites are a “magnet for animal abusers.” There are widely documented cases of animals sold or rehomed through Craiglist ending up in the hands of animal abusers and many animal welfare organizations advise people not to buy or sell pets in this way.

But despite these warnings, Craigslist in particular is seeing a boom in popularity when it comes to pets.

We took at look, using kwfinder.com, at the number of searches per month over the past 5 years for Craigslist pet related queries. Here’s what we found.

Keyword Searches Per Month in Google USA	Craigslist Puppies	Craigslist Pets	Puppies for Sale Near me Craigslist	Craigslist Dogs	Craigslist dogs for sale
Jan 2017	22200	165000	6600	18100	12100
Feb 2017	22200	135000	6600	18100	12100
Mar 2017	22200	165000	6600	18100	12100
Apr 2017	22200	165000	6600	18100	9900
May 2017	22200	165000	6600	18100	9900
Jun 2017	22200	165000	6600	18100	9900
Jul 2017	22200	165000	5400	22200	12100
Aug 2017	22200	165000	2900	22200	9900
Sep 2017	22200	135000	3600	18100	9900
Oct 2017	22200	135000	3600	18100	9900
Nov 2017	27100	135000	4400	18100	9900
Dec 2017	33100	165000	4400	22200	9900
Jan 2018	33100	165000	4400	22200	12100
Feb 2018	27100	165000	4400	22200	12100
Mar 2018	33100	165000	5400	22200	12100
Apr 2018	27100	165000	5400	22200	9900
May 2018	27100	165000	5400	22200	9900
Jun 2018	27100	165000	5400	22200	9900
Jul 2018	27100	165000	5400	22200	9900
Aug 2018	27100	165000	4400	22200	9900
Sep 2018	22200	165000	4400	18100	9900
Oct 2018	22200	135000	5400	18100	9900
Nov 2018	27100	135000	6600	22200	12100
Dec 2018	33100	165000	9900	22200	14800
Jan 2019	27100	201000	8100	22200	14800
Feb 2019	27100	165000	8100	22200	12100
Mar 2019	27100	201000	8100	22200	14800
Apr 2019	27100	165000	8100	22200	12100
May 2019	27100	165000	8100	22200	14800
Jun 2019	27100	165000	9900	18100	14800
Jul 2019	27100	165000	8100	22200	14800
Aug 2019	27100	165000	9900	22200	14800
Sep 2019	27100	165000	8100	18100	14800
Oct 2019	27100	165000	8100	18100	14800
Nov 2019	27100	165000	8100	22200	14800
Dec 2019	33100	165000	9900	22200	18100
Jan 2020	33100	201000	9900	27100	18100
Feb 2020	33100	201000	8100	22200	18100
Mar 2020	49500	246000	12100	27100	18100
Apr 2020	90500	368000	27100	40500	33100
May 2020	90500	368000	27100	40500	33100
Jun 2020	74000	301000	27100	33100	27100
Jul 2020	74000	368000	27100	33100	33100
Aug 2020	74000	368000	18100	33100	27100
Sep 2020	60500	246000	18100	27100	27100
Oct 2020	49500	246000	18100	27100	22200
Nov 2020	60500	246000	22200	27100	22200
Dec 2020	74000	301000	33100	27100	27100
Jan 2021	60500	301000	27100	27100	27100

There’s a clear surge in demand for pets on Craigslist (based on Google Searches) that correlates with the early part of the pandemic in the US when more people started to work from home.

Animal Shelter Searches

Over the course of recent years, we’ve seen a notable increase in searches for animal shelters too, as shown below:

	Searches for “Animal shelters” and “animal shelters near me” combined
Jan 2017	615000
Feb 2017	585000
Mar 2017	615000
Apr 2017	615000
May 2017	615000
Jun 2017	651000
Jul 2017	651000
Aug 2017	696000
Sep 2017	696000
Oct 2017	651000
Nov 2017	651000
Dec 2017	696000
Jan 2018	751000
Feb 2018	751000
Mar 2018	818000
Apr 2018	818000
May 2018	818000
Jun 2018	918000
Jul 2018	1000000
Aug 2018	1000000
Sep 2018	1000000
Oct 2018	1000000
Nov 2018	918000
Dec 2018	1000000
Jan 2019	1000000
Feb 2019	1000000
Mar 2019	1000000
Apr 2019	1000000
May 2019	1000000
Jun 2019	1100000
Jul 2019	1100000
Aug 2019	1223000
Sep 2019	1100000
Oct 2019	1100000
Nov 2019	1100000
Dec 2019	1100000
Jan 2020	1223000
Feb 2020	1100000
Mar 2020	1223000
Apr 2020	1223000
May 2020	1223000
Jun 2020	1223000
Jul 2020	1373000
Aug 2020	1346000
Sep 2020	1373000
Oct 2020	1346000
Nov 2020	1373000
Dec 2020	1373000
Jan 2021	1273000

Again, there’s a clear jump in demand as more people in the USA began working from home in early 2020 due to the Coronavirus Pandemic.

Puppies for Sale or the Animal Shelter?

With so many animals currently in shelter and so desperately in need of a home, we’d obviously love to see more people rehoming. But how is the shelter competing with the allure of new puppies?

We compared searches for “puppies for sale” with “animal shelters near me” state by state to see whether, according to the search data, it seems people are likelier to adopt a dog from a shelter or buy a new puppy.

Nationally, people are likelier to search “animal shelters near me” (average of 698,000 searches per month based on the last 12 months) than “puppies for sale” (511000). But in some states, the puppies win out:

How many animals are in shelters in the USA?

According to the ASPCA, 6.5 million animals enter shelters every single year. This comprises:

3.2 million cats
3.3 million dogs

It’s an astronomical figure, but one that is, according to the ASPCA research, down from over 7 million in 2011.

Sadly, it is estimated that 670,000 dogs and 860,000 cats who end up in shelters are euthanized each year.

1.6 million cats and 1.6 million dogs are rehomed each year, while 720,000 stray animals that end up in shelter are successfully returned to their owners.

Will the pandemic affect shelter intake?

With very easily demonstrable increases in the demand for dogs over the past year, there’s a genuine reason to be concerned that already very busy shelters may find themselves with higher intake.

In reality, we may not know the true impact for many years.

How can you help?

You could donate to your local animal shelter or national ones. Animal League is the world’s largest no kill shelter group.

In addition, do consider adopting if it’s possible next time you think about opening your home to a new pet.

Finally, contact your local shelters and, if you are able to do so, ask if you can help or volunteer in any way.

The work our country’s shelters do is absolutely incredible.

Animal Shelter Statistics USA

Animal Shelter Statistics USA