Last updated: 14 Aug, 2024
Published on: 6 Jun, 2024
The State of Pet Adoption Report 2022-2023
Now in its second year running, the PetRescue State of Pet Adoption Report provides a yearly capture of nationwide insights and trends affecting rescue pets and the broader pet management and adoption community in Australia.
This report consists of two parts:
- An analysis showing comparative insights on pet adoption via Australia’s most successful pet adoption platform, PetRescue.com.au.
- A survey of people working in the sector to find out all about them - what they do, how they are experiencing their work, and the challenges and barriers they face at an individual and organisational level.
We share insights into:
Pet characteristics and patterns in adoption, including information about how cats and kittens listed for adoption came into care. This means we can track how the different populations of cats that we live with interact with the adoption system.
How personal and organisational challenges affect people and pets.
How collaboration within communities benefits people and pets.
These insights take us a step closer to understanding the trends, movements, progress and challenges our sector faces in Australia. With this knowledge, PetRescue can shape, reshape and adapt programs where needed to have the most impact.
Overview
The survey shed light on the significant and heightened levels of work-related and personal stress experienced by participants during the 2022-2023 financial years. Despite this stress, nearly 70% of participants expressed general satisfaction with their work, with many reporting compassion satisfaction. However, respondents in low socioeconomic communities faced more challenges, adversely affecting their mental health.
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High levels of work-related and personal stress were reported, correlating with financial and workload pressures. Despite this, many participants expressed satisfaction with their work and felt supported by their organisations.
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Financial constraints, workload imbalance, and emotional challenges were prominent. Volunteers reported higher compassion fatigue but felt more supported and satisfied with their work compared to paid staff.
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Rescue groups, shelters, councils and vet clinics faced challenges, especially in lower-income communities. Financial and workload pressures were prominent among smaller, community-engaged organisations, often volunteer-run.
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Organisations with fewer resources reported stronger community relationships. However, rescues reported overcapacity and an inability to increase adoption numbers, suggesting they are operating at or beyond their capacity.
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Challenges common to all organisations included budget constraints, lack of physical capacity, and staffing issues. Moreover, organisations located outside of regional and major cities reported higher financial stress.
Key findings and themes in the results
Several themes emerged in the State of Pet Adoption Report 2023. Generally, a pattern of increased personal and organisational challenges that affect people and pets, especially for lower-income communities, was a key feature of the year.
Organisations that experienced greater financial and workload challenges were generally also those most connected to and engaged with their communities; those organisations with the least money and resources were more likely to run volunteer and foster programs or be entirely run by volunteers and were generally rated as having better relationships with their communities despite these challenges that may impact animal outcomes.
The key takeaway from this report is that communities are strongest together, and both animals and animal organisations benefit from engaging their communities to be involved in solutions.
Key pet adoption findings for 2022-2023
Compared to the 2022 financial year insights, pet adoption numbers in Australia performed strongly, particularly for cats and dogs, resulting in 10,000 more pets finding homes during the year (62,653 vs 52,593).
The PetRescue rescue community continued to grow. 73 new member organisations across Australia were verified and approved upon application.
All group types (councils, shelters and vets), except rescue groups, experienced a substantial increase (at least 45%) in the number of pets adopted, highlighting the concern that rescue groups are continuing to operate at full capacity.
Victoria led in pet adoption numbers (24,625 pets), driven by a significant increase in cat adoptions. Queensland and New South Wales represented the next largest count in pet adoption numbers (14,079 and 13,993).
Seasonal trends influenced adoption patterns, particularly for cats. During the 2022-23 summer period, Community Cat adoption numbers were the highest they have been since this data has been collected through the PetRescue platform.
The overall median days to adoption was 14.09 for cats and 20.94 for dogs (compared to 2021-2022 15.7 for cats and 21.21 for dogs). Shelters emerged as the only group type with a faster median time to adoption during this timeframe.
Organisations with stricter adoption policies saw a greater increase in the time between adoption and placement compared to groups with more flexible approaches to adoption, highlighting the potential impact of policies on adoption timelines.
The survey shed light on the significant and heightened levels of work-related and personal stress experienced by participants during the 2022-2023 financial years. Despite this stress, nearly 70% of participants expressed general satisfaction with their work, with many reporting compassion satisfaction. However, respondents in low socioeconomic communities faced more challenges, adversely affecting their mental health.
Context: Australia in the 2022-2023 Financial Year
The 2022-2023 financial year was marked by societal events and challenges that impacted the pet adoption sector and insights gathered, including:
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Transition from pandemic to post-pandemic conditions.
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Increased financial stress and housing insecurity.
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Natural disasters impacting a significant portion of Australia.
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Legislative changes in pet management and reporting in New South Wales and Victoria
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A notable decline in donations and a perceived slowing of adoption interest over the year among animal welfare organisations, largely attributed to cost of living pressures and housing challenges
Summary
Both years highlighted significant financial and workload challenges for adoption organisations, particularly those in lower-income areas. Legislative changes and community engagement remained key factors influencing adoption trends and organisational capacity.
For more detailed information, you can view the full report.
Or to read specific sections from the full report, please follow the links below:
The PetRescue 2022-2023 State of Pet Adoption Report (Full Version) (PDF Download) (estimated 105 minutes read time) |
(7.3MB) |
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Detailed Pet Adoption Platform Insights (PDF Download) (estimated 11 minutes read time) |
(717KB) |
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Detailed Sector Survey Results (PDF Download) (estimated 5 minutes read time) The insights from the survey of people working in the sector to find out all about them - what they do, how they are experiencing their work, and the challenges and barriers they face at an individual and organisational level. |
(376KB) |
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Mental Health and Wellbeing Insights (PDF Download) (estimated 10 minutes read time) The insights from the survey of people working in the sector relating to mental health and wellbeing |
(355KB) |
Take a look at the 2021-2022 State of Pet Adoption Report.
Platform results
Stats via PetRescue.com.au from 1 July 2022 to 30 June 2023.
Overall adoptions and engagement
Pets Adopted by Species
๐ถ๐ฑ 21,226 dogs and 39,241 cats were adopted via the PetRescue platform during the 2022-23 financial year.
๐ฐ Of the 2,502 pets of other species who found homes via PetRescue in this period, the most popular were rabbits (1,023) and guinea pigs (826), followed by chickens and ducks, rats and mice, ferrets, and a variety of larger farm animals.
๐ฅ๏ธ 887 organisations were PetRescue members, with 603 actively listing pets and giving them the best chance to find new homes.
๐ 62,653 pets found new homes via PetRescue.com.au (9,908 more pets finding new families compared to the previous financial year).
๐ From July to mid-August 2022, adoptions exceeded pet listings, indicating high demand.
๐ PetRescue member organisations received 107,431 enquiries about pets available for adoption on PetRescue, with an average of 3.4 enquiries per pet.
Pet Adoption Trends in 2022-2023
Dogs
๐ถ Adoption rates for dogs listed on PetRescue increased in the 2022-23 financial year.
๐๏ธ Monthly dog adoptions have remained steady since July 2022, increasing from a 12-month extended low period during the pandemic.
๐ Dog adoptions have still not recovered to pre-pandemic levels, with monthly adoptions from the platform at 1,900 as of June 2023, compared to 2,225 in June of 2019 and 1,464 in June 2022.
Cats
Sources of Adoptable Cats on Listed on PetRescue
The graph shows the source of cats listed on the PetRescue adoption platform.
๐ Cat adoptions via PetRescue.com.au continue to follow seasonal trends, with adoptions dropping in late winter and early spring and increasing over summer, coinciding with kitten season.
๐ The 2022 winter drop in cat adoptions was less dramatic than previous years, indicating a shorter break between kitten seasons.
Time to Adoption
Measuring and comparing the median time (the middle value in the data set) until adoption for rescue pets is extremely important; the faster pets are adopted into homes, the more pets that can be helped (particularly at-risk and vulnerable pets).
Cats
๐ Of cats listed and adopted via PetRescue during the 2022 and 2023 calendar years, the median Time to Adoption stayed the same (15.66 days in 2022 vs 14.11 days in 2023).
๐ However, the average time (total time divided by the number of cats) increased slightly by 8 days. This means that while most cats were adopted in a similar timeframe, a few cats had to wait much longer to be adopted in 2023.
Dogs
๐ถ Of dogs listed and adopted via PetRescue during the 2022 and 2023 calendar years, the median Time to Adoption remained stable (21.17 days in 2022 and 20.95 days in 2023).
๐ถ However, the average Time to Adoption dropped by 17 days (from an average of 105.02 days in 2022 to 88.25 days in 2023), indicating that more dogs found homes quickly.
All species
๐ Of pets who were listed and not adopted (either still waiting for homes or removed from the platform for other reasons), a trend in increasing Time to Adoption was noted.
๐ถ๐ฑ Overall, this means that demand for pets considered easy to adopt remained strong, but those with unique traits or specific needs are now experiencing even longer waiting times to find a home.
Average Time to Adoption for Dogs and Cats Adopted
Average Time to Adoption by Month
Pet Adoptions by State
Average Time to Adoption by State
โฑ๏ธ Pets adopted in New South Wales and Queensland experienced the highest overall average wait for adoption for all species this year. For pets in Victoria, the average wait to adoption was approximately half of that for pets in Queensland and one-third of the time that NSW pets waited.
๐ถ ๐ฑ ๐ฐ When broken down by species, patterns in average wait Time to Adoption across states, with dogs taking the longest to find their homes in the ACT, Western Australia and South Australia, and cats finding the longest to find homes in New South Wales and the Northern Territory. Pets of other species took the longest to place in New South Wales and the Northern Territory.
PetRescue member organisations
A look at adoptions by organisation type and adoption policy levels.
Assessing how adoption policy levels impact the waiting time for adoption is complex due to interactions with the type and location of organisations. Policy breakdowns differ by state and organisation type, and these factors are also connected to variations in adoption wait times and overall outcomes.
๐ PetRescue member organisations with all levels of adoption policies (flexible to strict adoption criteria and processes) experienced an increase in Time to Adoption throughout the 2022-23 financial year.
๐ Organisations with stricter adoption policies have experienced a greater increase in wait times to adoption than those with flexible adoption approaches.
โฑ๏ธ The median Time to Adoption for pets in the care of flexible organisations is one-third of the time compared to strict organisations and half of the time compared to moderate organisations during the 2022-2023 financial year.
PetRescue's policy level descriptions are intended as a guide only, to help adopters in their journey to find a new furry family member. Member organisations self-select which category best fits their approach to adoptions.
Flexible
An organisation with flexible adoption policies and procedures is one that embraces open adoption philosophies. The enquiry and adoption process is simple and straightforward, with ongoing support available after adoption.
Moderate
An organisation with moderate adoption policies and procedures undertakes a more in-depth application process, or may have particular living requirements for all of their pets.
Strict
An organisation with strict adoption policies and procedures undertakes a detailed and involved screening process prior to a prospective adopter meeting the pet.
๐ Two-thirds of council members have flexible or moderate adoption policies, with only two councils self-labelling as strict.
๐ Approximately half of the Vet clinic and rescue group members have flexible or moderate policies, and less than 10% consider their policies strict. Vet clinics have a higher proportion of flexible policies.
๐ The median Time to Adoption increased for council shelters by 52.6%, veterinary clinic members by 17.4%, and rescue groups by 9.7%.
๐ Contrary to the trend, shelters experienced a small 3.7% reduction in overall median Time to Adoption.
๐ Except for rescue groups, all PetRescue member organisations saw an increase of at least 45% in the number of pets adopted via the platform during the 22-23 FY. This potentially indicates that volunteer-run rescues are operating at full capacity, and other organisation types have the capacity to offer and run adoption programs and rehoming services.
Banner image credit: Nalu, rehomed via SAFE Carnarvon