In 2002, according to the story link below, the Calgary Humane Society took in 2,000 dogs, 6,000 cats, 300 rabbits, and 400 other animals.
They euthanize between five and ten cats a day the story says.
http://gauntlet.ucalgary.ca/a/story/6719
There are no-kill shelters around if you look and rescue agencies that provide foster homes until permanent homes can be found.
Get your dogs and cats spayed.
Where do they come from?
When we accepted Polly, who immediately lost her back two feet due to the abuse in a pet store we had rescued her from, she came with five kittens . . . . the previous 16 year-old young female owner didn't want the responsibility and had turned the whole kitten caboodle over to the pet store.
We found homes for four of the kittens and kept one.
Our stupid neighbours just got two more cats . . . . in seven years, by my count, they've had four previous ones, three of which appeared to have become coyote food and the fourth they backed a car over.
Our four cats are indoor . . . . although we allow our disabled one outside under constant supervision. She can't run away . . . . but caught a mouse on the deck the other day!!
I think the average outdoor cat lives about two years and, obviously, if unspayed can produce quite a lot of kittens. Our previous three indoor cats lived 15, 15 and nine years. There's a good lesson in that.
If I'm not mistaken, 50% of all puppies are given up by their original owners in the first year. Disposable beings.
Polly and Keeper, both owner surrenders to ourselves and the latter named ironically by her former owners, survey the valley as the sun goes down . . . . Polly has no back feet but can get around a little bit. She's never outside alone.
Cowperson