As we have probably all heard: “If you are not part of the solution, then you are part of the problem.”

I believe, in this situation, it does hold true.

First, my credentials: I do not have any training in veterinarian medicine, I do not have any advanced training in statistical analysis, and I am not a recognized mathematician nor a scientist.  My point is that it does not take a genius to figure this out.

At random, I selected a county that I was able to access historical animal-handling data.  The following is from fiscal years 1999-2006, Merced County Animal Control in central California. The numbers do not include dead animal recovery (i.e., road kill).

• 70,219 pets were handled

Of those 70K pets …

• 4,528 were recovered by owners … approx 6%

• 6,211 were adopted … approx 9%

• 49,340 were euthanized … approx 70%

• the remaining 15% were transferred to shelters, etc.

Therefore, in Merced County alone, almost 600 animals per month were euthanized (or 20 per day).  Where did they come from?  Why did no one claim them?

The total Human Population in Merced County was 240,162 (latest available 2005).

Let’s extrapolate …

Merced County’s human population is approx .00079% of the total US population. For the purpose of this analysis, I will use Merced County’s numbers as representative of the US average. During those years, two animals were euthanized for every seven people living in Merced County.

Therefore, based on the US population of 301,139,947 (source: cia.gov July 2007) the numbers are staggering.

• 87,330,600 pets would have been handled nationally

• 61,131,420 pets would have been euthanized … approx 70%

This is really shocking.  That works out to 727,755 animals per month were euthanized nationwide (24,258 per day), between 1999-2006.

Based on these non-scientific, analytical results: three-quarters of a million animals are killed every month in the US … do we have a problem here?

The solution is that *every* pet owner accepts their part of the responsibility.