The Future of Dogs in an Animal Rights America
by Walt Hutchens



Order your copy here
Bulk prices available

The Purple Apron Project

Grooming Aprons and Towels embroidered with 'Fight Anti-Pet Legislation. It Affects Us All"

Is it Overpopulation...

When the situation is the more common one of the shelter agreeing with others that the euthanasia rate is high, other questions must be examined.

A large fraction of very young animals is genuine 'overpopulation.' That is, more animals are being born than there are homes for. It's important to know where they're coming from but in most cases common sense and a bit of observation will give the answer:

If there are large numbers of free ranging dogs -- you see packs of dogs down almost any alley, there are chronic complaints of garbage cans being upset, and dogs picked up as strays are the large majority of shelter intakes, then the free ranging dogs are likely to be the major contributors to unwanted puppies. Nearly all of these puppies will be picked up on the street or turned in by persons reporting that they were picked up.

In most localities, most of the free-ranging dogs will be owned animals, turned out during the day while the owners are at work. Some will be fed regularly but allowed to roam continuously. However the proportion of sterilized animals is often low and they are not supervised to prevent breeding.

Overpopulation due to free-ranging animals requires a combination of several approaches:

1. A strongly enforced leash law. The streets *must* be cleared of free ranging animals; this is not just a primary public safety function but an essential first step to population control. This is labor intensive (hence expensive) work and it must be backed up by adequate shelter space to allow meeting the usual state mandated (and ethically required) minimum holding times for owners to reclaim their animals.

There is unfortunately no alternative to enforcing leash laws to clear the streets. You can threaten, you can punish but if you don't pick up animals you'll make people mad and drive them away from the system without solving the problem.

2. Spay/neuter programs that are in fact available to the owner population. If the population is largely poor this may require heavily subsidized or even completely free services. Consideration should be given to including licensing and rabies vaccinations in the package.

3. Educational programs to communicate not just the facts of the law and consequences of violation, but the advantages to the owner and pet of sterilization.

If free ranging dogs are uncommon then unintended or don't-care breeding of owned dogs is likely to be the main source of unwanted puppies. These puppies will be 'leftovers' from "Puppies -- $10" cardboard boxes at fleamarkets, "Free to a good home -- boxer x shep puppies" ads in the paper, and usually most will be turned in rather than picked up.

The same solutions as for large numbers of free ranging dogs (above) apply here but the emphasis is different. Leash law enforcement is essential but lower volume, education is important, ditto low cost spay/neuter programs.

"Overbreeding" by intentional home breeders is self correcting and thus unlikely to create an overpopulation problem. These breeders may be broken down into casual breeders selling for prices of $100-300 and show/sport/hobby breeders selling directly to the public at prices generally upwards of $300. Breeding by both groups is controlled by market forces. Casual breeders mainly do it for pocket money; unsold puppies are at least unprofitable. Among the most careful breeders, most do not expect a profit but out of pocket costs are often $500 and up per puppy and a litter that doesn't sell easily will not be repeated.