It goes without saying these days that pet adoption and rescue is the way to go if you’re in the market for an animal companion who would nibble on your couch but would in turn love you more than any human could.

We won’t dive into why shopping for pets is less than ideal but rather will focus on the 920,000+ reasons why there ought to be more adoption.

The aforementioned 920,000 number was actually how many dogs and cats were euthanized annually in the past several years. This is actually an improvement on the 2.6 million who were euthanized back in 2011. Luckily, the number declined.

And it’s statistically more likely that this number included a bigger proportion of cats than it did dogs.

In context, the U.S. is estimated to have roughly 90.5 million homes, or 70% of the total number of households that own a pet. Among these, there are more dog owners than there are cat owners.

The good news is that there are about 4.1 million animals that end up adopted from shelters each year, with more stray dogs than cats returning to their actual owners per year. So, the ball is definitely rolling.

However, the fact that there are still around a million dogs and cats who get euthanized annually means that there isn’t enough adoption and population control happening.

It’s not to say that things aren’t happening. The leap from 2010 to 2022 of the number of households that owned pets was 14 million—73 to 87 million. But more has to be done.

Folks consider the decline in euthanizing shelter animals to be a hopeful sign. One of the main factors for this decline is adoption and stray animal-owner reunions. However, when the minimum required period to keep an animal in a shelter is as low as 48 hours, with the typical being 5 to 7 days, time is of the essence. Also, just 5 states—California, Florida, Georgia, Texas, and North Carolina—alone are responsible for half of the euthanasia.

There are, of course, no-kill shelters who keep animals around indefinitely, with the exception of the ones who are terminally ill or suffer from poor quality of life. However, they do go out of their way to make sure every animal finds a forever home and the no-kill shelter count has actually increased over the years, which is another hopeful sign on the matter.

In just 6 years, the number of no-kill shelters in the U.S. has more than doubled, jumping from 24% to 57% between 2016 and 2022.

This in turn means that 42% of counties in the U.S. are officially no-kill zones for pets, and 93% of all no-kill shelters have managed to sustain their goals of not euthanizing animals in 2021.

A huge chunk of cases of adoption are attributed to the need for companionship. 47% of families who adopted pets reported that they wanted a pet and so they got one, with 25% specifying that they wanted a friend. 47% said that it was just the right time and circumstance to finally adopt as they were spending more time indoors.

One of the bigger reasons why folks don’t opt for having pets at all is the amount of responsibility it entails. And much of it leans on the cost of having a pet. Luckily, there’s a thing called pet insurance (no, it’s not like volcano insurance), which can have reimbursements of up to 90%. So, no more oopsie daisies off the shelf when making that impossible jump, Mr. Whiskers.

So, if you need more goodness of the animal adoption variety, you’re welcome. But if it’s time to go offline and maybe enjoy your own pets for now, then why not share some of your takes and stories in the comment section below!