Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Stop the Breeding of Pits So That We Don't Have To Kill Them

As any of my regular readers know, I HATE BREEDERS/GREEDERS. Stupid people who can't understand that we have a pet overpopulation despite what Nathan Winograd says. My favorite blog, http://www.DogsBite.org/, has just released a tell all report on how many pits are being euthanized in shelters. I just had to post some of this here because it shows how miserable a failure is of "No Kill".

http://www.scribd.com/doc/19018863/Decade-of-adoption-focus-fails-to-reduce-shelter-killing-Animal-People-JulyAugust-2009

2009 U.S. Shelter Data Shows that Pit Bulls Account for 58% of Dogs Euthanized
Animal People July/August 2009
DogsBite.org - The latest issue of Animal People News, which projects 2009 shelter killings based on 2006-2008 data1, reports that a decade of "adoption focus" has failed to reduce these deaths, with the decade's average at 4.5, right where it was in 1999. The data shows that campaigns designed to reduce shelter killing chiefly by increasing adoption, instead of preventing the births of cats and dogs most likely to enter shelters and be killed, have been ineffective.

Among the unadoptables in 2009, based on the 2006-2008 figures, will be about 1.8 million cats, believed to be mostly feral, and as many as 967,300 pit bulls. Of the 1,663,167 shelter dogs projected to be euthanized in 2009, pit bulls account for 58%. The increased pit bull killing rate, it was 50% in 2007, exists despite the fact that pit bulls are not more than 5% of the total U.S. dog population, according to the article, and that serious efforts have been taken to reduce this rate.

Pit Bulls Killed at Similar Rate as Steers
"Of the total U.S. pit bull population of circa 3.5 million, about a third arrive at a shelter in any given year, at an average age of about 18 months. This is the same average age and rate, relative to their number on farms, at which steers go to slaughter.
Two-thirds to 80% of the pit bulls entering shelters are surrendered by their keepers. Most of the rest are impounded, either for behavior or as victims of abuse and neglect." ANIMAL PEOPLE July/August 2009
Cities with Pit Bull Laws (BSL) Kill Fewer

Page 10 of the article shows a regional breakdown of shelter killing during the 3-year period. A side bar chart titled, "The Effect of Breed-Specific ByLaws on City Pit Bull Terrier Killing Rates" is also included. As seen in the chart, the City of Denver, which bans new pit bulls, also euthanizes the fewest pit bulls. While the national average of pit bulls euthanized per 1,000 human residents is 3.15, the rate in Denver is only .14. Of the city's total shelter killing, pit bulls accounted for 3%.

The City of Cincinnati, which also bans new pit bulls, shows a pit bull euthanization rate that is less than half of the national average 1.34. As noted in the article, pit bulls made up a much smaller part of total shelter killing in Cincinnati (10%) than in Milwaukee (18%) or Indianapolis (17%), two cities of similar demographic profile. Lastly, the chart includes San Francisco data pre-BSL (43%) and post-BSL (29%), a 14% drop after the 2006 enactment of a pit bull sterilization law.


1The ANIMAL PEOPLE projection of regional and national shelter killing tolls each year is based on compiling the tolls from every open admission shelter handling significant numbers of animals in specific cities, counties, or states. The sample base each year is proportionately weighted to ensure regional balance. Only data from the three most recent fiscal years is used.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

One of many problems with No Kill is that money gets sucked up into warehousing animals, then dealing with the disease created by that. There's no money left over for spay neuter programs!

Remember that before he got fired, that other No Kill guru similar to Winograd and promoted by Best Friends, Ed Boks, faced with skyrocketing spending on warehousing animals in California shelters, STOPPED SPAY NEUTER PROGRAMS.

How's that for senseless?

HonestyHelps said...

The reason that Boks as well as the Whino don't want spay/neuter to work, is it would put them out of work. The Whino continues to say that spay/neuter is part of his program but only on his terms. He doesn't support mandatory spay/neuter which would go a long way in reducing the influx. Does that make sense to you? He's worried about people turning in their pets because they can't afford to have them altered, thus more euthanasia. If people turn them in for that reason, then the pet is probably better off. There are far worse things that can happen to a pet than euthanasia in the shelter. And having people that can't afford medical care is one of them.