Study refutes euthanasia as pet surplus gauge

Cleveland-Euthanasia at animal shelters traditionally determines a community's dog and cat overpopulation or lack of available homes.

But a recent study entitled "Understanding Animal Companion Surplus:Relinquishment of Non-adoptables to Animal Shelters for Euthanasia"refutes the belief that the number of shelter animals euthanized acts asa sole indicator of a companion animal surplus.

Conducted by Dr. Philip Kass; Dr. John New, Jr.; Dr. Janet Scarlett;and Dr. Mo Salman, the study examines the number of shelter animals relinquishedfor euthanasia purposes compared to those relinquished for adoption.

"Most cities have euthanasia rates of 50 to 65 percent, so thereis unquestionably much work to be done to improve the system for adoptabledogs and cats," the article reports. "However, this study providesmeaningful data to counter the unrealistic expectations of shelter performancethat 'no-kill' rhetoric may create."

Published in the Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science, the studyreports that out of all animals relinquished to shelters, 24 percent ofdogs and 17 percent of cats were turned in for the purpose of euthanasia.Of those animals, 82 percent were relinquished based on their elderly statusor illness. Behavior issues marked 16 percent of dog and 18 percent of catseuthanized.

Article copy requests can be mailed to Philip Kass at the Departmentof Population Health and Reproduction; University of California, Davis,School of Veterinary Medicine; Davis, CA 95616.