Each year more than 200,000 animals are rehomed by animal welfare organisations and local authorities in the UK.
Ideally all healthy unwanted and/or stray animals would be found new owners, but unfortunately this is not possible and some have to be euthanased. It is difficult to get accurate statistics of the number of animals euthanased but in an effort to do so, the RSPCA combined its own figures with UK local authority information in an attempt to gauge the size of the problem. The estimate for 2009 is around 6,000 dogs and for 2008, 6,500. For 2008 and 2009 and previous years it is expected that the actual figure is much higher but without any centrally collated data it is difficult to be more specific.
It is hoped that
with more responsible pet ownership campaigns and messages that promote
neutering and microchipping, there will be a home for every healthy animal in
the UK within the next five years and that euthanasia will be a thing of the
past.
For more information, read the 'irresponsible pet ownership' animal welfare indicator
