Animal Shelter Statistics USA
May 30, 2021 2021-06-20 4:56Animal 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.
Table of Contents
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.
