The odds are that you live in a town that kills dogs. Here in the United States, estimates run from 2.7 to 10 million dogs that are killed each year. There are many reasons dogs get killed in shelters. Some dogs are just too sick to save. Others may be too aggressive. Unfortunately, many are killed because no one wants them.

Many states do not track the number of dogs killed by animal control officers, but the Connecticut Department of Agriculture does track some of this information. Here in Connecticut, around 2,500 dogs picked up by animal control officers are killed each year, or about 13% of the dogs that get picked up. This appears to be less than many other states, but is still a problem.

Perhaps the most important thing to be done is to make sure that your dog is spayed or neutered. Beyond that, getting your next dog from a municipal shelter or a rescue group that works closely with local shelters can help reduce the number of dogs killed because of overcrowding in shelters.

Also, knowing how your town is doing, and encouraging animal control officers to work closely with volunteer rescue organizations can be a big help. According to Department of Agriculture numbers, over half of the dogs euthanized in Connecticut come from the state’s largest five cities. Yet looking more closely, there are some interesting numbers to note. The largest city in Connecticut is Bridgeport, which euthanized seven hundred dogs in the 2008-2009 reporting period. Yet Bridgeport, which is only ten percent larger in population than Hartford, killed nearly seven times as many dogs as Hartford.

There are many things that could contribute to this. Bridgeport does impound three times as many dogs as Hartford does. However, some of this may be because Hartford animal control officers work closely with volunteer rescuers to find homes for the impounded dogs. Dogs impounded in Hartford are much more likely to be adopted than dogs in Bridgeport.

To make the point even more strongly, Stamford, the fourth largest city in Connecticut, which is 15% smaller than Bridgeport only euthanized ten dogs during the same reporting period, or less than 2% of the dogs they impounded. Stamford makes a strong effort to be a no-kill pound, and it is reasonable to assume that these dogs were either too sick or too dangerous to be adopted out.

Stamford adopts out over thirty times as many dogs as they kill. Wallingford has a similar success rate as does North Branford and East Hartford, and several smaller towns. On the other hand, there are several small towns that euthanize dogs and during the reporting period did not adopt out any. Though you cannot tell if the one dog euthanized in a town was because of illness, or lack of adoption.

For the large cities, Waterbury, New Britain and Manchester are the cities where dogs are more likely to be euthanized than to be adopted. A good group of volunteers has emerged in New Britain to help address the problem there and the numbers appear to be changing. It appears as if Waterbury and Manchester are two of the municipalities that could really take advantage of better coordination with volunteer rescue organizations.

Yet it isn’t just the large cities that people need to be concerned about. Derby, with a population of only twelve thousand euthanized twice as many dogs as they adopted out. It may be that there is a good reason for this, but it illustrates the need for people to ask questions of their local animal control officers and to look at their own communities first.

So, before you buy a dog at the local pet shop or from some breeder, or before you visit some large expo spending thousands of dollars to ship shelter dogs in from out of state, make sure you check out the local shelters and rescue societies. You just may find the dog of your dreams. You might even feel called to help other dogs at these shelters find their forever homes.