Pet overpopulation: causes, impacts, and solutions

Homeless Dogs and Cats in San Antonio

Pet overpopulation is, oftentimes, an invisible community problem. This is true in San Antonio, where many people fail to understand how significant the pet overpopulation problem is. People in middle-class neighborhoods in San Antonio oftentimes have no idea that there are so many homeless dogs and cats in the city. In fact, they may engage in behaviors that encourage pet overpopulation, without realizing that they are contributing to the problem. In many neighborhoods that are not as affluent, homeless dogs and cats are not an invisible problem; they can be seen on street corners and in yards, creating health and safety risks, not only for themselves, but for the people and pets that live in those neighborhoods. Pet overpopulation is literally a life and death struggle; thousands of companion animals are euthanized every day in America, not because there is anything wrong with them, but because there are simply far more homeless pets than there are people to adopt them. San Antonio, like some other cities, has made a tremendous effort to reduce the homeless pet population and reduce euthanasia rates among companion animals.

To truly understand the problem, one must look at San Antonio in 2006, when it had "

the third largest euthanasia rate of pets per capita in the country, with more than 50,000 euthanized annually" (SAAFDN). In fact, " Less than 10% of the dogs and cats impounded at the City of San Antonio's Animal Care Services (ACS) shelter made it out alive via adoption, transfer to rescue groups or returned to owners (collectively known as "live release")" (SAAFDN). In addition to animals that were impounded, there were neighborhoods that were plagued by roaming animals, which not only created health problems for the residents, but also desensitized many of them to the plight of homeless dogs and cats. It was then that San Antonio made a commitment to transition to a no-kill environment.

One of the most important tools for reducing the homeless dog and cat population is spaying and neutering companion animals. A single unneutered dog or cat and its offspring can create thousands and thousands of puppies or kittens within a very short time period. Furthermore, even if a pet owner places each of those puppies and kittens with a responsible owner and those owners then spay or neuter the pets, every animal placed in a home from an unplanned litter takes the spot of an animal that could have been adopted from a shelter and is at risk of euthanasia. This is true even of dogs and cats that are purebred. First, shelters are full of purebred dogs and cats that are homeless. Second, most purebred dogs and cats that have been bred as companion animals do not have the breed characteristics that mean that breeding them is necessary to improve or maintain breed standards.

In addition to spaying and neutering dogs, people can reduce the pet overpopulation problem by choosing to adopt rather than shop when looking for companion animals. First, adopting a pet from a shelter or rescue means that an animal that would have been euthanized has been saved from that fate. However, choosing to adopt rather than shop has additional benefits. Many, if not most, of the animals that are bred to be sold as purebreds or hybrids on the companion animal market are bred by disreputable breeders. In addition to the squalid living conditions for mothers in these puppy or kitten mills, these breeders engage in behavior that directly contribute to homelessness in pets. These practices include: dumping dogs or cats that have not been sold at shelters or on roadways, dumping animals that do not meet breed standards, and dumping female dogs who have outlived their fertility. Furthermore, the conditions under which many of these animals are bred and raised undermines the lifelong health and temperament of the animals, which can result in health and behavior problems that lead irresponsible owners to dump those pets at shelters later in their lives. As a result, even responsible pet owners who purchase their animals from disreputable breeders contribute to the pet homelessness issue.

The city has encouraged spay and neutering and adopting rather than shopping by instituting a massive high-volume, low-cost spay/neuter initiative, which targets both mixed-breed and purebred companion animals. In fact, since 2005, "the capacity to conduct high-volume, low-cost surgeries in San Antonio has increased from 17,000 to 65,500 when all clinics operate at full capacity" (SAAFDN). This emphasis on reducing pet reproduction has helped fix many of the issues linked to pet overpopulation. For example, stray animals can become a nuisance, and reducing the number of homeless pets reduces the level of nuisance that they create. It also results in cost-savings for the community, because capturing, impounding, and euthanizing animals costs more money than subsidizing reduced-cost spays or neuters. Furthermore, neutering animals can reduce aggression, which means that if those animals do get loose and roam, they pose less of a danger to the community than they would have posed if unaltered.