Statistics

NGO (Non-governmental organization) Animal Shelter was founded in 2005. First animals were taken in to this house, which was specially built as a shelter, in September 2005. Since the Shelter has been operating 6500 dogs and cats have found new homes.

The Animal Shelter building is designed for 80 cats and for 50 dogs, but usually there are 100-120 cats and 70-80 dogs in the building. Year by year the number of animals, who come into the shelter, have gradually decreased but it's not happening as quickly as we would like.

About 200-230 cats and 100-120 dogs end up in the Animal shelter just in one month. In the years of 2006-2008 the average was 12, 4 animals in a day that came to the shelter (more or less 8 cats and 4 dogs every day). Animals that have died on the streets of Tallinn are also brought to the shelter. 1-2 dogs and 4-5 cats a day loses their life in the traffic of the capital.

25% of dogs and 1% of cats who have ran away are looked for and picked up, rest of them turn out to be unwanted.

It takes about 3-4 weeks to find new homes for dogs and for cats it takes 2-3 months. But even now there are dogs at the shelter that have been waiting a new home since last year and cats that were brought to the shelter in 2007.

Financing

According to the law in Estonia stray and homeless animals have to be put in a shelter and keep them there at least for 14 days, during that time the owner has the opportunity to get his/hers pet. From the 15-th day the animal belongs to the shelter and the shelter has the right to find a new owner for the animal.

Money to maintain the shelter comes from self-governments (the expenses of the 14 days and vaccine expenses) and also from sponsors - donators. From the Shelters budget we can conclude that the money paid by self-governments covers 46-48% of the expenses connected with dogs and 18-20% expenses connected with cats. There are very few animals that find a new home on the 15-th day.

Activities outside the shelter or activities that aren't directly related with offering shelter, treatments and food for homeless animals can happen only thanks to the support of the donators. 10 hour basic training course that is free to the owner who has taken the animal from the shelter, explanation work in kinder gardens and in schools (in 2007 we gave lectures in front of 2104 kids, in 2008 the number was 2098), cooperation with other shelters, and pet organizations, and all this prevention and propaganda actions are 100 % carried out with the money we have received through donations.

Euthanasia

Not all animals that come to the shelter are able to find new homes (or go back to his/hers owner) - 86-90% of dogs and 30-33% of cats will find a new home. Drastic difference between dogs and cats are due to several circumstances: most cats brought from streets are wild (there aren´t wild dogs in Estonia), contagious diseases spread among street cat´s colonies (plague, cats HIV, skin disease). Tallinn's Zoo experts say that 80% of the cats in Tallinn´s streets are disease carriers. Animals that put people in danger with their behavior or they are contagious to other animals living in the house, we can´t keep them and they euthanized.

The reason for doing dog euthanasia was medical in 99% of the cases - they were seriously ill or injured animals, who couldn´t be cured, and few day old blind puppies, which were left on the side of the road in a carton or in plastic bag and can´t cope without their mother. The number of dogs that are euthanized due to aggressive behavior is very little. In 2006 out of 1455 dogs brought to the shelter there was 27 with that problem, in 2007 out of 1378 there were 4 aggressive dogs and in 2008 out of 1261 there were 3 aggressive dogs.

The reason for doing cat euthanasia is contagious diseases (60%), aggressiveness (30%) and serious injuries (9%).

Although the law gives the shelter the right to use euthanasia on healthy animals (after the animal has spent 2 weeks in the shelter), it´s not used in practice and euthanasia doesn´t happen based on the calendar.