# Shelter Data



## rappwizard (May 27, 2009)

I visited the Broward County Animal Care and Control website today to get information on current dog laws in the county that I live in (Broward County). They have excellent links--also excellent links to the various cities in the county and then I can search for dog laws there too.

While I was on the Broward website, I saw photos and ID's of the dogs listed--and noticed mix after mix after mix. I know that some people who are involved in shelters blame poor breeders for dogs being in shelters (or at least part of the problem) but out of 68 dogs listed, only 7 were purebreds (roughly 10%).

Also, out of those 68 dogs listed, 16 were listed as some type of pit bull or bull terrier mix (roughly 25%). Another 7 were listed as lab mixes (roughly 10%). 

Are bully breed owners part of the problem? If so, perhaps special education programs targeting them and their dogs can help?

Any ideas or comments on what might have worked in your area?

I realize this is not a good sample--only one day--but I did find it interesting and wonder if it is representative of other parts of the US; Broward County is Fort Lauderdale, FL--pretty large area.


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## Pointgold (Jun 6, 2007)

rappwizard said:


> I visited the Broward County Animal Care and Control website today to get information on current dog laws in the county that I live in (Broward County). They have excellent links--also excellent links to the various cities in the county and then I can search for dog laws there too.
> 
> While I was on the Broward website, I saw photos and ID's of the dogs listed--and noticed mix after mix after mix. I know that some people who are involved in shelters blame poor breeders for dogs being in shelters (or at least part of the problem) but out of 68 dogs listed, only 7 were purebreds (roughly 10%).
> 
> ...


In our local shelter, it is Lab mixes that comprise the larger number of dogs. Some are mixed with Pit Bulls, but not the majority. Yet. I am seeing more and more of them in our area. And as I have seen more, there are more produced. I do know that at least one Pit Bull "stud" owner has no problems allowing his dog to breed bitches of whatever breed...


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## GoldenSail (Dec 30, 2008)

I think it is going to vary a lot by locale. I grew up in Wyoming, and our shelter dogs were largely mixes of herding breeds (border collies, heelers, aussies). A lot of people live on ranches so I think that is the natural choice for that area--topped off with the fact that many let their dogs run free all day long on acres of property.

I can't imagine golden breeders in my current area--even unethical ones--contributing a lot to the shelters. It seems pretty uncommon to find a purebred golden in a shelter or find one on craigslist. The newspaper has about 1-2 litters listed that I have noticed, and I can count on one hand the ethical breeders that I know (involved in show, do clearances) and as it is, they breed seldomly.

It would be interesting to do a study, eh?


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## Pointgold (Jun 6, 2007)

GoldenSail said:


> I think it is going to vary a lot by locale. I grew up in Wyoming, and our shelter dogs were largely mixes of herding breeds (border collies, heelers, aussies). A lot of people live on ranches so I think that is the natural choice for that area--topped off with the fact that many let their dogs run free all day long on acres of property.
> 
> I can't imagine golden breeders in my current area--even unethical ones--contributing a lot to the shelters. It seems pretty uncommon to find a purebred golden in a shelter or find one on craigslist. The newspaper has about 1-2 litters listed that I have noticed, and I can count on one hand the ethical breeders that I know (involved in show, do clearances) and as it is, they breed seldomly.
> 
> It would be interesting to do a study, eh?


15-20 years ago, we had tons of Goldens in shelter. There was a "breeder" an hour or so south of us. For a long time we saw a quite a few of his Goldens in class. Then we started seeing quite a few more of his Goldens (and offspring of those dogs - he sold on full registration, and of course, females were more "because you could make money back off 'em) in shelter. As we have been able to educate more and more folks about the importance of clearances, temperament, the standard, etc, it appears that his business has fizzled - we don't see his dogs anymore. There are a lot of people pumping out Labs in this area, and they've seemingly become the dog du jour, replacing Goldens. But our bigger issue is "doodles" and other various mixes.

I'll try to find the article on this - an interesting statistic is that black dogs are not as readily adopted as other colors.


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## Tahnee GR (Aug 26, 2006)

We get a lot of "pit" mixes as well as lab mixes. It is very rare to find a Golden in the shelter. Recently there was a spate of Gordon Setters-really odd.

Right now our local shelter has 26 dogs. Eight are pit mixes, 7 are Lab mixes, 1 purebred Chihuahua and the rest are various mixes. One dog is identified as a Heeler mix but sure looks purebred to me.

There are tons of cats available-I didn't even count them!


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## fostermom (Sep 6, 2007)

Many of the larger shelters in NC contact the breed rescues when a purebred comes in, so many times the purebreds never make it to the "available" list. Since NC is so horrible compared to most other states, I can't help but think that happens in other states, too. There is a rural shelter just south of here where I pulled a golden a couple of months back. They have had purebred little dogs, chihuahuas, poodles, cocker spaniels and purebred big dogs, irish setters (I don't even see many setters around here!), german shepherds, labs, english pointers and more. Each week (they euthanize every Wednesday morning) there are at least 50% purebreds in that shelter. That's because they don't contact the breed rescues. I tend to be the one to contact them. Oh, and I am not counting the bunches of purebred hounds, because there are so many of them that it's really overwhelming.


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## rappwizard (May 27, 2009)

Same here about finding a purebred golden in the shelters; the local rescue group has a contract with Broward Animal Control that they will spring any unadoptable goldens--usually they have heartworm, and the shelter does not have the money to treat them, so rescue will step in, and locate a vet to give a break of some kind. But I understand that any adoptable goldens (no health problems--not hyper--no training needed) are adopted right away from the shelter--there's never a problem finding a home for goldens.

I also heard about the same study about black dogs (black labs?) that were harder to adopt, and that there were higher euthanasia rates for them--a shame, isn't it?

And yep, I clicked on cats, and there are close to 100 listed (94). 84 classified as "domestic short hair" or a mix of "domestic short hair." One Siamese; a Maine **** mix--you want a cat, look no further.

The other comment I have heard is that when looking at the pet shelter problem, it is a far more serious problem for the cat lovers in the community, than dogs. Looks like in Broward County, at least for the snapshot today, cats account for 55% of the shelter population--dogs 45%.

Seems there should be education programs targeting cat owners too.


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## Finn's Fan (Dec 22, 2007)

Boulder Humane Society sometimes has an inordinate number of pits/pit mixes, but I think that's because Denver and several other cities nearby have BSL about pit bulls; they are banned entirely. There are predominantly lab mixes, as well as heeler, cattle dog and Aussie mixes at any given time. On the rare occasions that a purebred golden comes in with costly medical issues, they call GRRR to take the dog; otherwise, a golden is adopted within 24 hours of hitting the adoption page. Cats usually outnumber dogs on the adoption list.


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## fostermom (Sep 6, 2007)

A lot of the average pet owners treat cats differently than they do dogs. They also tend to have more cats than dogs. I can't tell you how many ads I have seen on Craigslist where the people are getting rid of the cat they have had for 7 years because they got a new puppy and the cat and puppy aren't getting along. They don't get rid of the puppy (yet), instead they get rid of the cat. The average pet owner treats cats as much more disposable than a dog. If they don't dump them at the shelter, they just put them outside. There was just an ad recently on Craigslist where there were 4 cats that belonged to an elderly lady. The lady passed away and when the family cleaned the house out, they chucked the cats outside (these apparently had been indoor only cats) so a neighbor took them in until she could find a home for them.

I worked at a no kill cat shelter for about 2 years until my allergies couldn't take it anymore (and the fact that I kept bringing home UTIs to my cats). We always had a 3-4 month waiting list. And we didn't even take owner surrenders, only strays. As soon as a cat was adopted, we brought a new one into the isolation area. They are an extremely well run shelter and I really enjoyed being a part of it for those 2 years.


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## CarolinaCasey (Jun 1, 2007)

Pointgold said:


> I'll try to find the article on this - an interesting statistic is that black dogs are not as readily adopted as other colors.


When I was in highschool, I was in a video-class and had to make a PSA. I did it on the 'black dog syndrome' where black dogs are not readily adopted compared to other colors of dogs. I had a lot of statistics and information incorporated into my little video. Too bad it is on VHS, we don't have a tape player anymore, or I'd tell you the stats (as of about 2000).


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## RedDogs (Jan 30, 2010)

Our shelter (not a county facility): ~50 dogs. About half are (likely) purebred beagles. Three that could be "purebred" pit bulls. A bullmastif. Some beagle mixes. Coonhound mixes. Unidentifiable "brown dog" or "shepherd type color" or "lab shape"  The purebred dogs are typically adopted faster, we've had a bunch of beautiful coonhounds, some blueticks, a redbone, irish setter, several goldens and golden mixes, a few border collie mixes, weims. Most of the current residents of this 'no kill' facility have been there long term. It's sad in many ways.

Bully breeds: Here in OH county facilities cannot adopt them out, a huge number get euthanized yearly. There are several bully-breed specific training classes, one is offered at a facility I'm at. I would say about 90% of the people, if not more, who take the class are already super responsible and dedicated, that's why they're there. The pit bull type dogs are really hard to adopt out. Even the super cute ones [ahem. Yes. I do think some are much more cute than others.....I'm bad!] who know lots of tricks and whose biggest problem is being overweight. 

The cats... no one wants to pay $30, 80, 110 for a cat from a shelter when they can go get a neighbors kitten for free. (...and realistically that should read "free".). What? spay? neuter? vaccinations? food and litter? We have such a hard time adopting out cats.

The breed listings are often horribly wrong. I want to take over our petfinder pages and make everything 'right'! 

Purebred breeders are often not the problem (....well..for a couple years we would have at least two beagles come in each year as surrenders or strays...pregnant...). But everyone needs to recognize there is a problem and help out as much as they can. 

And public education is hard. No one wants to come to a talk on "How to select the perfect dog for your family" (...and i'd reason to guess most cat additions to the family are not planned). People have misconceptions about shelter animals. People are scared to go to shelters. And people have misconceptions about working/show dogs too! The person I volunteer with is a college student, not dog savy but loves dogs. Some of our conversations have been veeeeeeryyy interesting. 

Great topic!


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## GoldenJoyx'stwo (Feb 25, 2007)

I think Swampcollie once mentioned (here on the forum) that Black Labs now seem to be the rage and they are being adopted much more frequently. I was glad to hear that. I really like Black Labs and Black dogs.


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## BeauShel (May 20, 2007)

I know that most dogs are listed as mixes even if they are purebreds to cover the shelters butts. They dont want people coming back and saying you said this was a golden and it is a mix not a purebred. How many times have we seen a person post a golden on here needing saving and it is clearly a purebreed but listed as a mix. 

The majority in our area is pit bull mixes.


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## AquaClaraCanines (Mar 5, 2006)

Last time I looked at my county's website there were 34 adoptable dogs (my county is large, city, but pretty wealthy and really doesn't have a big animal problem. The shelter has big bucks, too.). 31 of them were pit bulls, some labeled as mixed, but most looked pure. 1 was a Chi mix and one was a chow mix. I've never seen anything else in there except VERY rarely a GSD, a Labrador, a cocker, a poodle, or a Siberian. Adopted the first day, since nobody wants a pit.


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## fostermom (Sep 6, 2007)

Kimm said:


> I think Swampcollie once mentioned (here on the forum) that Black Labs now seem to be the rage and they are being adopted much more frequently. I was glad to hear that. I really like Black Labs and Black dogs.


I think that's regional, too. We have rescues from the northeast who come down to our shelters to pull the labs. Usually the yellow and chocolate, but if they look purebred they will sometimes take the black ones too. Labs are a dime a dozen down here. I don't think you could look at any shelter here and NOT see a lab. Of course, anything that is black is automatically labeled as a lab mix, even when it obviously isn't.


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## momtoMax (Apr 21, 2009)

Where I live (small town, mountains, coal country = poor people) most of the dogs in our shelter are pitts and pit mixes in the large dog section. A few where GSDs and a couple high energy breed mixes. There where also a large number of smaller dogs there too.


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