The 2022 Animal Intake and Disposition Summary brought some disappointing news. An average of 12 impounded cats and dogs were euthanized per day in 2022 in New Jersey. This number is UP from 10 in 2021 and 11 in 2020.
The total number of animals impounded in 2022 was 51,370. Of that number, 33,567 were redeemed or adopted and 4,364 were euthanized.
The average number euthanized per day had dropped continually over the previous 13 years that we’ve been reporting them on this web site (2009 through 2021), the biggest drop occurring in 2020, when the per-day average went from 24 to 11. This was likely partly due to a large drop in the total number of animals impounded between 2019 and 2020, as well as the surge in adoption during the early part of the COVID-19 pandemic. As this adoption boom has slowed down, shelters have been struggling not only because fewer animals are being adopted, but also because many pet owners are actually returning these adopted pets to shelters due to their own struggles affording the costs to feed and care for their pets amid inflation.
Click thumbnails to see:
- the 2022 New Jersey statistics by county, published by the New Jersey Department of Health, Infectious and Zoonotic Disease Program
- the 1984-2022 Stray Animal Intake and Disposition Survey (Dogs and Cats) for the state of New Jersey, and
- a chart that breaks down the numbers to show averages and percentages to compare by year from 2009 through 2022
Below is a line graph showing total numbers of all types of animals impounded (blue), adopted or redeemed (green), euthanized (red), and unaccounted* (yellow), from 2009 through 2022.
(*”Unaccounted” can mean many things, depending on how shelters keep their records. It could be animals transferred to other shelters in NJ or in other states, transferred as barn cats, pulled by rescues, etc. The numbers that are most important are for those euthanized and adopted [red and green]. The number impounded is lower, and that is good. That is likely due to the effectiveness of spay/neuter education and programs.)
Here is a graph showing the numbers above as percentages of the total number impounded each year:
And one more graph showing the average daily number of cats and dogs euthanized, by year:
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AND THESE NUMBERS DON’T TELL THE WHOLE STORY!!
The truth is that the number of cats dying in New Jersey is much, much, much higher than what is reflected in the figures reported by those shelters that volunteer to complete the annual New Jersey Animal Intake and Disposition Survey.
Not all facilities volunteer to submit their numbers.
Not all facilities reporting keep accurate records.
Majority of cats are homeless and ignored. They are left on the streets and in the woods to fend for themselves. To add to this tragedy, they have not been spayed or neutered so they continually reproduce. Litter after litter of kittens destined to become homeless cats is the result. This cycle of cruelty is rarely ever fully addressed in New Jersey, the country, or anywhere in the world.
The bottom line is most homeless stray/feral cats aren’t taken to a facility where they are counted and many times killed. That doesn’t mean that they do not die. They just suffer and die in silence on the streets and in the woods. The truth is they do so in never-ending numbers because, as we pointed out earlier: “This cycle of cruelty is rarely ever fully addressed.”
Why? Because it takes a ton of money, time, effort, dedication, cooperation, and major coordination of a comprehensive plan.
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