Why pets are surrendered
When a dog or cat is surrendered to Montgomery County, MD's public shelter, staff record the owner's main reason. Across 10,693 owner surrenders of dogs and cats with a recorded outcome (2017 to 2026), 8,632 have a reason on file. Most reasons are about the owner's situation, not the animal.
57%
Owner's circumstances: personal problems, too many animals, cost, time, allergies, health or a new baby.
20%
Housing: moving, landlord or housing rules, eviction.
14%
Animal's behavior: general behavior, biting, aggression, litter box, escaping.
3%
Animal's health or size: illness, injury, age, size.
Dogs and cats
| Reason group | Surrenders | Share | Median days in care |
|---|---|---|---|
| Owner's circumstances | 1,854 | 51% | 13 |
| Housing | 791 | 22% | 15 |
| Animal's behavior | 668 | 18% | 14 |
| Animal's health or size | 168 | 5% | 14.5 |
| Other / not specified | 141 | 4% | 13 |
| Reason group | Surrenders | Share | Median days in care |
|---|---|---|---|
| Owner's circumstances | 3,075 | 61% | 13 |
| Housing | 958 | 19% | 13 |
| Animal's behavior | 568 | 11% | 21 |
| Other / not specified | 298 | 6% | 11 |
| Animal's health or size | 111 | 2% | 19 |
Median days in care uses completed stays only, and only for groups with at least 50 stays.
Returned adoptions
1,195 adopted dogs and cats were brought back in this period, 1,061 with a reason recorded. The most common: behavior (general) (271), owner's personal problems (237), allergies (124), other / not specified (81), doesn't get along with resident pet (68).
What this suggests
Because most surrenders trace to housing and the owner's circumstances, help with pet-friendly housing, short-term care, pet food, veterinary costs and rehoming support can keep some pets in their homes. Behavior reasons, about 14% of surrenders, point to behavior helplines and training support. See benchmarks for how long stays run by intake type.
Outcomes at another public shelter: Fulton County, GA
For context, Fulton County Animal Services (Georgia) publishes outcome records. Of 20,873 dog and cat outcomes from 2024-10-22 to 2026-10-21:
| Outcome | Animals | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Adoption | 7,577 | 52.3% |
| Transfer / rescue | 3,231 | 22.3% |
| Return to owner | 2,406 | 16.6% |
| Euthanasia | 1,123 | 7.7% |
| Died in care | 141 | 1.0% |
| Other | 20 | 0.1% |
| Outcome | Animals | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Adoption | 3,173 | 49.8% |
| Transfer / rescue | 1,930 | 30.3% |
| Return to field | 502 | 7.9% |
| Died in care | 315 | 4.9% |
| Euthanasia | 239 | 3.7% |
| Return to owner | 205 | 3.2% |
| Other | 11 | 0.2% |
Fulton's data has no intake date, so it is used for outcome shares only and never in length-of-stay figures.
About the data
- Reasons come from the shelter's own coding, one main reason per surrender. Owners may have several reasons; only the recorded one is counted.
- Recording improved over time. Share of surrenders with a reason, by intake year: 2017: 51% · 2018: 38% · 2019: 49% · 2020: 98% · 2021: 98% · 2022: 99% · 2023: 94% · 2024: 90% · 2025: 95% · 2026: 94%. Before 2020 about half had no reason on file.
- Counts cover dogs and cats with a recorded outcome. Animal IDs and names are never used.
- Download the figures as surrender.json (CC BY 4.0).
Sources: Montgomery County, MD Office of Animal Services, Animal Shelter Pathway (public domain), and Fulton County, GA, Animal Services outcome data (CC BY 4.0). Processed Oct 22, 2026. See methodology.