No other nation has ever even remotely approached the volume of dog and cat population control killing that the U.S. has sustained for more than a century.

This is partly because keeping dogs and cats has never been as popular in any other nation. In India, for example, dogs are ubiquitous--but only because virtually the entire dog population runs free on the streets. The actual ratio of dogs to humans is about one dog per 10 people. In the U.S. it is one dog per four people.

We have pet overpopulation, first and foremost, because we keep and feed pets at about twice the rate of the British, French, and Australians.

Here are some foreign shelter killing figures, compared to the present U.S. national average of 14.8 dogs and cats killed in shelters per 1,000 humans, and the 1970 U.S. national average of
115 dogs and cats killed in shelters per 1,000 humans:


Just 133,400 dogs entered British shelters in 1998 as abandonees or strays. Only 22,000 dogs were killed in shelters, for a national rate of 0.39 dogs killed per thousand humans.

By 2001, only 113,000 dogs entered British shelters, and only 14,800 were killed.

Japanese data--

Animals killed Animals 1,000s per 1,000 people killed people

KANAGAWA pref. 1.18 3,999 3,387
(except Kawasaki, Yokohama, and one more city) TOKYO (1999) 1.19 13,846 11,624 Kawasaki 1.37 1,713 1,254 Yokohama 1.54 5,305 3,435 Hiroshima 1.87 2,102 1,124 Kyoto 2.96 4,344 1,469 Kobe 3.53 5,271 1,493 Fukuoka 3.87 5,189 1,340 FUKUOKA pref. 6.11 15,408 2,520
(except three cities population)


Hong Kong, with about the same human population as New York City, killed 5,539 dogs and 5,366 cats in fiscal 1996: 25% of the New York volume.

Singapore, with approximately the same human population as Chicago, killed 3,602 dogs and 6,281 cats: 20% of the Chicago volume. Singapore either returned to owner or adopted out 1,172 dogs, for about the same lifesaving rate (24%) as Chicago.

No one even bothers to compile the data for most western European nations, because killing to control the dog and cat population long since ended in the northern nations, is technically illegal in Italy, and is still routine only in some parts of France, Spain, and Portugal. (There is a real need for better data collection and publication in southern Europe, to enable animal advocates to better quantify and address the overpopulation problem that does exist there--but it is controlled, historically, more by individual poisoning efforts than by municipally directed pickups and extermination.)

Dogs and cats are killed throughout Europe for biting people, and are tested for rabies, but you can count the number found to be rabid west of the Alps each year on the fingers of one hand, since rabies was virtually eliminated from western Europe more than 15 years ago.

The only current data I have from Latin America comes from Mexico City. Apparently they have 2.9 million dogs, among
18,268,000 people, for a ratio of roughly one dog per six humans.

The U.S. ratio is 1/5, and the ratio in India is 1/10, but you see far more dogs in India than in the U.S. because in the U.S. most dogs are confined, whereas in India they run loose.

Mexico City killed 63,261 dogs last year, or 3.5 per 1,000 humans.

The really interesting aspect of the Mexico City data to me is that they killed only 2% of their total dog population. American shelters kill on average about 4% of our total dog population per year.

Cheers,

--
Merritt Clifton Editor, ANIMAL PEOPLE P.O. Box 960 Clinton, WA 98236

Telephone: 360-579-2505 Fax: 360-579-2575 E-mail: anmlpepl@whidbey.com Web: www.animalpeoplenews.org

[ANIMAL PEOPLE is the leading independent newspaper providing original investigative coverage of animal protection worldwide, founded in 1992. Our readership of 30,000-plus includes the decision-makers at more than 10,000 animal protection organizations. We have no alignment or affiliation with any other entity.]