The data presented below is from PetRescue.com.au and spans from 1 January 2022 to 30 June 2026. Figures reflect listings and adoptions made through the PetRescue platform by member organisations. They are not a full census of animal welfare activity in Victoria and do not include animals rehomed outside the platform.
General caveats (apply to all charts)
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Figures include cats and dogs only; other species are excluded.
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State is based on the state recorded on the listing, not the state in which the listing organisation is located. Some pets may have been in the care of an organisation based in another state, but located with a foster carer in Victoria
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Quarterly figures may be revised in future extracts if underlying records are updated or corrected after the fact.
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"Other" includes vet-listed pets, owner-to-owner (Home2Home) listings, and any group with no recorded organisation type. Where this category appears negligible in the chart, it may still represent a meaningful number of records at certain points; refer to the underlying data file for exact values.
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Because pound transfer and shelter transfer both involve movement of an animal from one organisation to another, an individual cat could in principle appear as an intake event for more than one organisation type across its journey (for example, transferred from a pound to a rescue group). Each listing is counted once, at the point it was listed, so this does not create double-counting within this chart, but it means the two panels are not independent populations of animals.
Chart 1: Pets listed and adopted by age cohort, quarterly
This chart shows quarterly volumes of cats, kittens, dogs and puppies listed and adopted via PetRescue in Victoria, split into four cohorts: kittens and puppies (under 6 months) and cats and dogs (6 months and over).
Key patterns:
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Kitten listings and adoptions are strongly seasonal, peaking in Q1 (January to March) each year and falling to their lowest point in Q3 (July to September). This aligns with the Australian kitten breeding season.
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The Q1 kitten peak has trended upward over the period, from around 3,300 in Q1 2023 to around 4,100 in Q1 2026.
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Cat (6 months and over) listings show a gradual upward trend across the period with comparatively little seasonal variation, rising from around 1,400 per quarter in early 2022 to around 2,700 to 2,800 by mid-2026.
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Dog listings and adoptions have remained relatively stable across the period, generally in the 1,200 to 1,700 range per quarter, with no strong long-term trend.
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Puppy volumes are comparatively small throughout and have trended down slightly since a high point in Q3 2024.
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Adoption volumes closely track listing volumes across all four cohorts and time periods.
Chart 2: Pets listed by age cohort and listing organisation type, quarterly
This chart breaks down listing volumes for each of the four cohorts by the type of organisation that published the listing: rescue group, shelter, council pound, or other.
Key patterns
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Across all four cohorts, rescue groups account for the largest single share of listings in most quarters.
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For cats and dogs (6 months and over), shelters make up a substantial and fairly consistent share alongside rescue groups, with council pounds contributing a smaller but consistent share.
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For kittens and puppies, rescue groups and shelters together account for the large majority of listings, with council pound and other organisation types contributing comparatively little.
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The seasonal kitten peak described in Chart 1 is visible across all organisation types, indicating the seasonal pattern is not driven by any single organisation type.
Chart 3: Pets adopted by age cohort and listing organisation type, quarterly
This chart shows the same organisation-type breakdown as Chart 2, applied to adoption volumes rather than listing volumes.
Key patterns
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The relative proportions of rescue group, shelter and council pound adoptions broadly mirror the proportions seen in listings (Chart 2) for each cohort, suggesting no organisation type is disproportionately over- or under-represented in adoption outcomes relative to its share of listings.
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As with listings, rescue groups account for the largest share of adoptions across most cohorts and quarters.
Chart 4: How cats came into care, quarterly
This chart shows quarterly cat listing volumes by recorded intake source (community cat, owner surrender, pound transfer, or shelter transfer), both as counts and as a percentage share.
Key patterns
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Pound transfer has been consistently the largest single recorded source of cats listed on the platform in Victoria across the period shown.
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The share of listings recorded as "not recorded" has increased over the period, from a small proportion in 2022 to a more noticeable share by 2025 and 2026.
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Community cat and owner surrender both remain significant recorded sources throughout, with community cat's share trending gradually upward over the period.
Caveat
Recording of intake source is not mandatory on the platform. The "not recorded" category should be read as a data-completeness gap, not as evidence that intake from that source did not occur. Its increase over time may reflect a change in recording behaviour rather than a change in actual intake patterns, and this should be checked against the underlying data before drawing conclusions about trend.
Chart 5: Cat sources, volunteer-run rescue vs shelter or council, quarterly
This chart splits the Chart 4 breakdown by organisation group: volunteer-run rescue (rescue groups excluding Home2Home) versus shelter or council (shelters and council pounds combined).
Key patterns
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The two organisation groups show markedly different and diverging intake source profiles over the period.
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For volunteer-run rescues, community cat has become an increasingly large share of recorded intake, while owner surrender's share has declined.
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For shelters and councils, owner surrender was the dominant recorded source in 2022 but its share has declined substantially since. Pound transfer has become the dominant recorded source for this group by the most recent quarters.
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The "not recorded" share has increased over time for both organisation groups, consistent with the pattern seen in Chart 4.