It is common to hear concerns that animal shelters are overcrowded when they experience an increase in the number of animals coming through their doors. However, equating increased admissions with overcrowding can unintentionally oversimplify a complex issue. It blurs the distinction between a shelter having an increased number of admissions and its capacity to care for them. An increase in shelter admissions does not automatically mean a shelter is overcrowded.

Overcrowding occurs when an animal population exceeds a facility’s ability to provide humane care and appropriate housing, commonly referred to as the “capacity for care.” Overcrowding can mean animals do not have adequate space, sanitation, ventilation, enrichment, staff attention, medical care, rest, or other conditions necessary to protect their physical and behavioral well-being. This results in injuries, illnesses, disease outbreaks, behavioral deterioration, and other negative impacts on their well-being.

Overcrowding occurs when shelters do not proactively manage their animal populations to find positive outcomes for the animals through owner redemption, adoption, foster, transport, working with rescue groups, social media promotions, and other legitimate outlets.

What the Numbers Show

DACC has seen an increase in animal admissions since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic. This has prompted concerned observers to believe there is an overcrowding problem. However, comparing today’s admission numbers against the admission numbers during the pandemic creates an inaccurate analogy.

The pandemic years saw an artificial reduction in animal care center admissions due to the unique societal impacts of the pandemic, and comparing today’s admission numbers to those during COVID creates a false narrative. A broader review of DACC statistics shows that the numbers of dogs and cats entering DACC’s seven animal care centers is still lower than the pre-COVID period. In fiscal year 25-26, DACC admitted 33,800 dogs and cats. In fiscal year 18-19, the last full year before COVID, DACC admitted 53,515 dogs and cats. DACC is still admitting fewer animals than before COVID. Click here to see the stats.

Further, DACC has done an admirable job of reducing animal shelter admissions by 57.3% over the past 25 years. This steady and impressive accomplishment allows DACC to provide greater focus and resources for the animals who must be admitted to its care because they have no other options. We have accomplished this through enacting mandatory spay and neuter laws, expanding partnerships with animal rescue organizations, increased marketing of animals, use of foster programs, a vibrant volunteer program, rightsizing the number of cities that contract with DACC for services, and providing community outreach resources to keep pets at home with their families. You can see the 25-year historical stats here.

Managing the Animal Shelter Population

Overcrowding can be avoided, even during an increase in admissions, when the animal population is properly managed. Effective population management means continuously monitoring admissions, length of stay, available housing, cleaning and sanitation requirements, medical and behavioral needs, foster capacity, adoption demand, veterinary resources, animal care staffing resources, enrichment and exercise opportunities, and the financial resources to support these factors. For example, ten dogs requiring intensive medical or behavioral support can place very different demands on a shelter than ten healthy, socially appropriate dogs who are readily adoptable. In open door shelters like DACC, these factors can change daily depending on a variety of causes. These can include seizures of large numbers of animals from inhumane conditions, mega adoption events, emergency shelter for animals displaced by natural disasters, and even the time of the year.

Why the Word “Overcrowding” Can be Misleading

Using “overcrowding” every time shelter admissions increase can create the false impression that animals are being housed in unacceptable conditions. It does not consider the shelter’s work in effectively managing an increased population of animals. This work is done by using proactive and effective population management strategies to ensure the capacity for care is maintained at a humane level and without overcrowding.

Capacity for care asks better questions: How many animals are entering? How long are they staying? What are their individual needs? How much humane capacity do we have? What resources are available? Have we pursued every opportunity to find a positive outcome for each individual animal? And what can we do to prevent the population from reaching a point where animal welfare is compromised?

Each DACC animal care center conducts weekly or bi-weekly population management meetings to review animals in their care. The team, consisting of care center leadership, medical staff, volunteer coordinators, and behavior team members look at each animal’s individual history and what has been done to help it get adopted. Teams consider how long the animals have been in our care, on our website, marketed through social media, participated in off-site adoption events, promoted to animal rescue organizations, or had other opportunities for placement. These are the questions that allow care center leaders to effectively and proactively move animals through the sheltering system into positive outcomes.

Community Outreach as a Prevention Tool

Prevention is better than crisis management. The most effective way to prevent overcrowding is to manage the shelter population before a shelter reaches a critical point. That requires investment in programs and services that reduce unnecessary shelter admissions and help animals leave the shelter safely and efficiently.

DACC has many proactive programs to keep pets and families together, and the pets out of the shelter system. These include:

• Promptly reuniting lost pets with their families
• Pet retention and support services such as assistance with veterinary costs and free pet food and supplies
• Accessible low-cost spay and neuter programs
• Free vaccinations and microchips through our mobile medical teams
• Foster care
• Adoption initiatives
• Rescue partnerships
• Community outreach and education, including intervention programs to provide guidance and assistance to pet owners considering relinquishing their pets
• Timely treatment of medical conditions
• Behavior support and enrichment
• Effective transfer and placement programs

These are not separate from shelter operations. They are population-management tools. Every animal successfully reunited with its family, placed into foster care, adopted, or transported to another shelter can help preserve shelter capacity for the animals who truly need to be there.

There is an important reason to be precise about our terminology: animal welfare must remain at the center of the conversation. When a shelter population grows, the question should not simply be, “How many animals are here?” The more important question is: “Can we continue to provide every animal with the humane care and quality of life it deserves?” If the answer is yes, an increased population does not necessarily constitute overcrowding.

But when a population reaches a level where animals cannot receive adequate space, sanitation, medical attention, enrichment, behavioral support, rest, or other essential care, we have a genuine welfare problem. That is when the term overcrowding is appropriate and when immediate action is necessary.

Shelters face real challenges when admissions increase. We should not minimize those challenges or dismiss concerns about shelter capacity. Instead, we should describe the challenge accurately. “Increased admissions” tells us what is happening. “Population growth” describes a change in the shelter census. “Population management” describes the work required to keep the population at a level where humane care can be maintained. And “overcrowding” should describe a situation in which the animal population has exceeded the shelter’s capacity for care. Those distinctions are important because the words we use influence the solutions we pursue.

Although DACC admissions remain below pre-COVID numbers, we remain vigilant in continuing our efforts of effective community education and intervention, providing alternatives to admission, maintaining a safe and humane environment for our animals, and ensuring we are doing everything we can to ensure positive outcomes for the animals in our care.

Marcia Mayeda

You can subscribe to Marcia’s blog here:   Director’s Blog

The Los Angeles County Animal Care Foundation is a nonprofit 501(c)3 charity that raises money to support DACC in its mission of saving animals and keeping pets and families together. Learn more at www.lacountyanimals.org.