2024 Year End Webinar Recap - Shelter Animals Count
26Feb’25
2024 Year-End Report and More
Webinar Recap
The 2024 Year-End Report Webinar covered key sheltering trends from the past year, with a focus on new data by organization type, length of stay trends, and upcoming resources for the industry. This year’s discussion highlighted the differences in intake and adoption trends among government-funded shelters, private shelters, and rescues, as well as the continued challenges with length of stay, particularly for dogs.
Our partnership with Hill’s Pet Nutrition continues to support data-driven solutions for the animal welfare industry, expanding resources like our Data Basics Workbook and exploring critical adoption trends through Hill’s State of Shelter Pet Adoption Report.
We announced the winners of this year’s Data Drive grants, recognizing organizations for their commitment to data transparency. In addition, we introduced our new National Animal Welfare Statistics Dashboard, providing an updated, more detailed view of sheltering trends across the country.
Key Takeways:
- + Dog adoptions continue to decline, while cat adoptions have increased.
- + Length of stay for dogs has nearly doubled since 2019, contributing to capacity challenges.
- + Government-funded shelters handle nearly 50% of intakes but account for a smaller percentage of adoptions.
- + Private shelters and rescues have seen the largest drop in dog adoptions, affecting overall capacity.
- + The Data Basics Workbook is now available as a resource for understanding and using sheltering data.
- + Hill’s Pet Nutrition is expanding efforts to support adopters and improve shelter outcomes through new research and initiatives.
- + The new National Animal Welfare Statistics Dashboard provides a more detailed view of sheltering trends nationwide.
Shelter Animals Count is proud to partner with Hill’s Pet Nutrition to empower animal welfare organizations with essential data knowledge and tools. Together, we’ve launched the Data Foundations Series, featuring educational webinars, blogs, and resources designed to help organizations strengthen data-driven practices and make a greater impact in their communities.