State of the State of Pets include almost
100% increase in cruelty seizures at CNYSPCA
A year in the numbers of CNYSPCA
tells a story about the most vulnerable pets
CNYSPCA continued to see an upward trend and growth in terms of the number of animals coming in through dog control and animal cruelty cases, pointing to the increases in foreclosures, evictions and living situations that are changing dramatically.
“The number of animals being surrendered, dumped or found in unsafe and unclean conditions is increasing rapidly,” said Troy Waffner, Director of CNYSPCA. “Unfortunately, the picture it is painting is not a pretty one for our most vulnerable pets as their families are being displaced by changes in their lives and living situations.”
CNYSPCA has seen an 85 percent increase in the number of animals seized through its cruelty investigations and a 16 percent increase in the number of animals picked up as strays through dog control while owner surrenders are down a little due to the decreased ability in shelters to take in all surrenders.
“The almost doubling of cruelty seizures in one year is a travesty – the cases we saw this year ranged from hoarding to physical abuse on pets,” Waffner commented. “It breaks your heart but also causes you to really focus on the question of what is causing the increase and how do we stop the cycle of abuse.”
Adoptions at CNYSPCA have increased by over 11 percent owing in large part to a greater marketing effort of their animals that has included monthly adoption events, greater exposure through offsite events and more highlighting of the animals available at the facility.
“The silver lining in all of this is that we have been working harder than ever to place all of these animals and we are seeing the results of that as there has been an increase in adoptions of all of our animals going into loving new forever homes,” Waffner said.
“The hope is that the number of animals being surrendered or abandoned begins to drop off but when looking at historical numbers it is scary in that it could keep on growing,” Waffner commented.
Historical graph of CNYSPCA’s intakes and outcomes.
|
CNYSPCA | |||||||||
|
Animal #’s | |||||||||
|
2016 – 2023 | |||||||||
|
2016 |
2017 |
2018 |
2019 |
2020 |
2021 |
2022 |
2023 | ||
|
Intake | |||||||||
|
Surrenders |
560 |
393 |
360 |
281 |
232 |
273 |
411 |
303 | |
|
Seized |
672 |
717 |
629 |
590 |
397 |
306 |
218 |
404 | |
|
Strays |
526 |
603 |
608 |
574 |
348 |
348 |
463 |
537 | |
|
Outcome | |||||||||
|
Adoptions |
1,506 |
1,428 |
1,340 |
1,127 |
684 |
693 |
854 |
964 | |
|
Return to Owners |
162 |
174 |
182 |
183 |
154 |
144 |
194 |
179 | |
“Looking ahead to 2024 there are things we can do to try to help the situation including offering low cost spay/neuter programs, vaccination programs, microchipping and more to try to help pet owners who want to keep their animals but may not be able to afford all of the needed services a pet requires,” Waffner concluded.