They’re receiving too many dogs – and, to a lesser extent, cats – due to a population boom driven by an acute national veterinarian shortage, which has lessened the availability of spay and neuter appointments. In California, 60% of animal welfare organizations have unfilled veterinary positions, according to an SF SPCA survey last year of 111 organizations.
Spay and neuter appointments were also deferred during the pandemic.
“You’re looking at thousands and thousands of animals entering the community that would not have had we not had to shut down,” Scarlett said.
At the same time, a post-pandemic economy, coupled with rising housing instability, has prompted many Californians to give up their pets, Tucker said. Housing issues are the “number one reason” given for surrendering pets, she told KQED.
“Behind every animal is a human, and that human story as to why that animal landed in a shelter,” she said. “And that is the most heartbreaking thing; we want more than anything for people to be able to keep their pets.”
Year-to-year data showing the number of animals in California shelters is difficult to compare for a number of reasons: Data collection is voluntary, and the rules around how many dogs and cats a shelter will accept can change each year. Some shelters began raising requirements for accepting animals as overcrowding rose after 2020, for instance.
Those caveats aside, Shelter Animals Count, a national database, has some available comparisons nationally. About 690,000 animals were euthanized in the United States last year, 52% of which were dogs and 48% of which were cats. That’s a 15% increase since 2022.
In places like Tulare County in the Central Valley, Scarlett said puppies are being surrendered more frequently amid a shortage of available veterinarians to spay and neuter animals.
In 2019, Tulare County Animal Services took in 5,585 dogs, and in 2024, that had dropped to 2,442 dogs under new “managed intake” rules, such as requiring owners to have an appointment to surrender their pets and limiting feral dog intakes. Meanwhile, puppies are making up a larger share of those dogs. The agency accepted 1,126 puppies this year, which is projected to reach 2,700 by the end of the year, a 30% increase since 2019.
The number of dogs Tulare County Animal Services euthanized in 2019 was 1,332, up from 1,483 last year. This year’s number is set to outpace 2023.
While the rise in dogs surrendered to shelters, and particularly puppies, is disheartening, Scarlett said the California Adopt-a-Pet Day could make a difference.
“There’s so much in the world that we can’t control,” she said. “But we can affect this.”
