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Last updated: 30 Mar, 2023
Published on: 17 Feb, 2023
The state of pet adoption report 2021-2022
Pet Adoption Trends & Insights 2021-2022
Stats via PetRescue.com.au from 1st July 2021 to 30th June 2022.
“We can’t change what we can’t see.”
The PetRescue State of Pet Adoption Report is the first of its kind to provide a yearly capture of nationwide insights and trends affecting rescue pets and the rescue community in Australia.
This report consists of an analysis showing comparative insights on pet adoption via Australia’s most successful pet adoption platform, petrescue.com.au.
Between the 1st of July 2021 and the 30th of June 2022, 33,697 cats, 16,915 dogs and 2,133 pets of other species were marked as adopted on the PetRescue platform. At the end of this period, there were 977 groups with active PetRescue memberships, consisting of 733 rescue groups, 44 council pounds, 82 shelters and 118 vets. For more information about PetRescue’s impact during 2022, click here.
These insights take us a step closer to understanding the trends, movements, progress and challenges. With this knowledge, we can shape, reshape and adapt programs where needed to have the most impact.
Take a look at the 2020-2021 State of Pet Adoption Report here.
Council pounds were the fastest at adopting pets into homes (median of 6.97 days).
VIC overtook QLD with the highest amount of pet adoptions (15,607).
85.24% of pets listed on PetRescue were adopted in this timeframe.
Of the cats listed for adoption, 32.9% were urban stray cats.
Cats were listed for adoption by member organisations at twice the rate of dogs.
On average, each cat received 203 views and 1.88 adoption enquiries.
Dogs received more than 3 times the number of views and enquiries as cats.
On average, each dog received 1,080 views and 6.58 adoption enquiries.
It took a median of 21.21 days for dogs to find a home, and 15.7 days for cats.
The most unusual pets listed were one turkey and one fish!
Rabbits found a home in 20 days, guinea pigs found a home in 12 days and rodents only 7 days!
Dogs in VIC received the most views (13,761,936 in total!).
Note: 85.24% of the pets listed on PetRescue between the 1st of July 2021 and the 30th of June 2022 were also marked as adopted during this same time period. This statistic doesn’t include pets that were listed prior to this time period, but adopted within it, and it doesn’t include pets marked as ‘on hold’ during this period.
Pets looking for homes by species
The majority of pets coming into care were cats (63.6%), then dogs (32.1%) and the remaining other pets (4.3%) included rabbits (1.7%), guinea pigs (1.4%) and smaller pocket pets: mice & rats (0.3%).
Note: This is not total pet intake data in Australia, but data based on pet listings via PetRescue.
Pet Adoption Trends in 2021-2022
(Compared to 2020-2021)
Pets listed
🐶 The number of dogs looking for homes increased by 3.2%
🐱 The amount of cats looking for homes decreased by 3.2%.
🐈 Cats were listed by PetRescue member rescue organisations at twice the rate of dogs
📋 Organisations in VIC listed the most pets overall (29.6% of listings) followed by QLD (27.3%).
🐕 While QLD listed the most dogs (32.9%), closely followed by NSW (29.5%)
🐱 The average amount of enquiries per cat decreased by 20% from the previous year, but is still 118% higher than pre-pandemic times (2019)
🐶 The average amount of enquiries per dog decreased by 37% from the previous year, but is still 35.5% higher than pre-pandemic times (2019)
Dogs listed (by state)
Cats listed (by state)
Pets adopted
🐶🐱 NSW had the highest number of dogs adopted (5,390), and VIC had the highest number of cats adopted (10,711) in this period.
🐕 NSW overtook QLD with the highest number of dog adoptions (5,390) for the first time since the 2013-14 financial year, demonstrating the effect of the new NSW pound legislation, banning the killing of cats and dogs in pounds.
📈 There was a 15% increase in dogs adopted in VIC in 2021-22 (4,063), and an 11.22% increase in cat adoptions in VIC during this period (10,711).
Dogs adopted (by state)
Cats adopted (by state)
Time to adoption
Measuring and comparing the median time 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).
🐱🐶 The median time to adoption for cats was 15.5 days, and 21 days for dogs. Time to adoption increased by 29% for cats and dogs compared to the previous period (an increase of 3.8 days).
⏱ The ACT had a significantly faster time to adoption than all other states (3.2 days).
🐱🐶 The median time to adoption was significantly longer for dogs in SA (101 days) and cats in the NT (44.5 days), compared to other states.
🐕 The median time to adoption for dogs in SA drastically increased - it jumped from an average of 8 days in 2020-21 to 101 days in 2021-22 (an increase of 1,150%)
⏰ Council Pounds continued to rehome pets the fastest but slightly slower than the previous period (6.97 days compared to 5.3 days).
⏲ The median time to adoption in NSW jumped from 21 days (in 2020-21) to 34 days (in 2021-22).
🐈 The median time to adoption has increased across all states for cats - most notably in the NT (an increase of 58%), while the number of cats listed is similar across both years.
Median days to adoption - Dogs (by state)
Median days to adoption - Cats (by state)
Median days to adoption (by species)
Listing & adoption trend movements over time
(compared to previous period)
🐶 The August to November period for both years saw a decrease in dogs adopted.
🐱 December to January sees a large increase in cats adopted - this matches with seasonal trends during peak kitten season. There was also another spike in cats listed around March, correlating to timing of kittens reaching their adoption age.
🏡 During the month of March, National Pet Adoption Month saw higher numbers of adoptions.
📉 There was a decrease in pets listed in September for both years, which potentially correlates to a pattern of cyclical timings rescue groups experience.
Cats listed
Dogs listed
Cats adopted
Dogs adopted
PetRescue Members
📋 New rescue community members joining PetRescue increased in each state except WA and SA.
📈 New rescue community members joining PetRescue increased the most in QLD (50% increase) and VIC (20% increase).
✔️ New council pound sign-ups increased by 150% (a total of 5 council pounds joined PetRescue in this period).
Median number of days to adoption (by group type)
Number of new PetRescue members (by state)
Number of new PetRescue members (by group type)
PetRescue members - by adoption policy level
Median days to adoption - by adoption policy level & species
Assisted rehoming & surrendering insights
Covid lockdowns continued to positively impact adoptions during the first part of 2022. The number of pets being listed for adoption began increasing in the second half of the year but remained significantly lower than in pre-pandemic times.
The change in NSW legislation in February 2022, which requires council pound facilities to release pets to rescue groups rather than euthanasia, had an unforeseen impact on rescue organisation capacity. Many rescue organisations were unable to take in owner-surrendered pets during this time, with waitlists of up to 1.5 years reported by pet owners. This increased the demand for PetRescue’s Home2Home program by 200%, and the program was temporarily paused due to the demand outweighing Home2Home’s resourcing ability.
49% of those requesting to use the Home2Home program to rehome their pet did so due to accommodation stress, and this remained the number one reason for rehoming. There has been no statistical correlation between ‘pandemic pets’, those pets adopted during the pandemic and rehoming.
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