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SAC Releases 2024 Year End Report - Shelter Animals Count
05Feb’25
REPORT RELEASE:
2024 Annual Analysis
We just released our annual analysis, comparing 2024 to 2023 and 2019. |
Highlights Include:
- + Community intakes dropped by 1.4% (83,000 fewer dogs and cats) compared to 2023, with dogs contributing more significantly to the decrease.
- + Adoptions rose slightly by 17,000 (<0.5%) in 2024, with dog adoptions down 1% and cat adoptions up nearly 2%. Adoption rates for both dogs (57%) and cats (64%) increased.
- + Live outcomes for cats and dogs remained steady at 5.2 million, a slight dip of <0.5 (20,000) from 2023, revealing subtle shifts between species.
- + In 2024, 748,000 dogs and cats experienced non-live outcomes, down 1.6% from 2023 and 20% from 2019. Cats drove much of this progress, with 3% fewer non-live outcomes than 2023 and 37% fewer than 2019, as euthanasia rates dropped from 13% in 2019 to 8% in 2024.
- + Dogs are staying in care longer in 2024 for all sizes of dogs – though large dogs are staying in shelters the longest. This is a trend warranting further examination of shelter resources and placement strategies.
- + In 2024, shelters and rescues continued to play distinct but complementary roles in animal welfare. Shelters handled the majority of community intakes (85%) and adoptions (73%), providing broad-scale support for animals in need. Rescues, on the other hand, focused on specialized populations and managed 27% of adoptions and 15% of intakes. Rescues also facilitated 52% of transfers, though overall transfers declined. Non-live outcomes showed mixed trends. Dog non-live outcomes rose 0.5%, driven by a 1.5% increase in government shelters, now 17.5% higher than in 2019, with a 15% non-live outcome rate. In contrast, cat non-live outcomes dropped 15% across all shelter types. Rescues saw decreases of 15% for dogs and 4.6% for cats for non-live outcomes. Adoptions also varied. Shelter adoptions rose 0.4% for dogs and 2% for cats, with increases in government shelters offsetting declines in private shelters. Rescues saw a 4.2% drop in dog adoptions but a 1.4% rise for cats.