A new study by the Institute of Statistical and Geographic Information of Jalisco (IIEG) has revealed that between 2016 and 2021, Guadalajara metro area municipal authorities euthanized 47,286 stray dogs and cats, while only 1,136 animals were adopted.
The study showed that the municipalities wait between three and 12 days to see if an animal will be adopted before putting it down.
IIEG asked animal control departments in the five main municipalities (Guadalajara, Zapopan, Tlaquepaque, Tonala and Tlajomulco) for information on the number of dogs and cats taken into their pounds, their average length of stays, adoptions, euthanasia procedures, sterilization programs and the annual budgets they exercise.
Predictably, Zapopan and Guadalajara were the municipalities with the highest number of euthanization procedures carried out.
While some of the municipalities have made progress with sterilizations programs and increased their budgets for animal control, there is still much work to be done in the area of promoting adoptions, IIEG Director Conrado Romo García concluded.
“It is necessary for citizens to be aware of the responsibility that having a pet implies,” Romo García said, stressing the “importance of sterilization and not abandonment,” so as to “significantly reduce the number of animals on the street, that ultimately end up being euthanized.”