What Happens to Animals in Local Denver Animal Shelters? by Elena Madrid

 Please enjoy this article written by a student in DMHS's "Introduction to Journalism" class!

    In the Denver Animal Shelter (DAP) they home 6,000 abandoned and lost pets each year. There are about 20 or more animal shelters in Colorado. In Denver, there are about 7 animal shelters. How many animals a year end up in shelters, and what happens to the ones that aren’t adopted? How many of these animals get adopted or go back to their original homes? What can we do to help animals that nobody wants to adopt? 

From 2000 to 2015, there was a study about what happened in animal shelters. There were a group of people (Sloane M. Hawes, Bridget A. Camacho, Philip Tedeschi, and Kevin N. Morris) who investigated the intake, euthanasia, adoption, return to owner, live releases, and transfers in 76 animal shelters (the organization that was part of the study was the University of Denver). In the time of the study, the number of cats euthanized went down 50%. The study recorded: euthanasia rate for cats: 4,700/year, 1.2/1,000 state residents/year, or 11.6% of cat intakes/year (Trends in intake and outcome data for colorado animal shelters and rescues). The number of dogs euthanized went down 60%: euthanasia rate for dogs: 4,800/year, 1.4/1,000 state residents/year, or 7.5% of dog intakes/year. 

You don’t really hear about pets going back to their owner who gave them up for adoption, but it does happen. Not very often, but it does. The study didn’t find any trends in the return to owner rate (RTO) with cats during the years the study was conducted. “RTO rate for cats was approximately 2,800/year, 0.6/1,000 state residents/year, or 4.5% of cat intakes” (Trends in intake and outcome data for colorado animal shelters and rescues). The study found that the number of dogs returned to their owners remained mostly consistent but a decrease of 19.3% was noticed taking into account the human population growth. “RTO rate for dogs: 22,500/year, 5.9/1,000 state residents/year or 29.3% of dog intakes” (Trends in intake and outcome data for colorado animal shelters and rescues). The number of cats adopted increased 15.9% “adoption rate for cats: 27,800/year, 5.8/1,000 state residents/year, or 59.6% of cat intakes/year.”  The number of dogs adopted looked to have stayed the same but when they took into account human population growth it looked like the adoption rate for dogs went up 24%: adoption rate for dogs: 36,800/year, 9.4/1,000 state residents/year, or 50.2% of dog intakes/year” (Trends in intake and outcome data for colorado animal shelters and rescues). 

There are many things that people can do when there is an animal no one else wants to adopt. One thing you could do if you don’t want to adopt a pet is you could foster them until the shelter or organization could find a good home for the animal. Another thing you could do is recommend to someone you know to adopt the animal. A third thing you could do is adopt the pet yourself. There are a lot of things that people do to help an animal when nobody wants to adopt them but we should all help animals more. Lots of people already help animals but we should all try to do at least one thing to help an animal every week.