You already know the numbers don't match up.
You already know the national shelter statistics don't show an accurate picture of what is happening to dogs in our community. Large national organizations are celebrating shelter management policies, live release rates and reduction of shelter euthanasia — when those of us with boots on the ground know that we are experiencing the worst crisis we have ever encountered. The numbers don't match up.
Every day, dogs are turned away from shelters, surrendered directly to rescuers, or left in communities with no resources to help them. None of those dogs show up in the official statistics. As far as the data is concerned, they don't exist.
These dogs are invisible in the data. They are The Uncounted.
Why this database exists.
The Uncounted is a community database built to change that. It takes two minutes to log a dog from your phone. No account needed. No lengthy forms. Just the basic facts — where, when, what happened, and what the outcome was.
The more rescuers who contribute, the stronger the data becomes. And strong data is how we push back.
If you work in rescue, you belong here.
Who should use this.
This database is built for rescuers and private individuals who encounter dogs outside the shelter system — strays, surrender requests, neglect cases, dogs in the community that no agency is tracking. If you've helped a dog that won't appear in any official statistics, this is where that dog gets counted.
You don't need to be part of a registered rescue. You don't need an account. You just need two minutes and a phone.
One rule to prevent double counting.
Only the organization or individual who first pulled the dog from the community should log a record. If a dog is transferred to another rescue, the receiving rescue does NOT log a new record — the transfer is already captured as the outcome by the first reporter.
Example: Rescue(r) A finds a dog and transfers it to Rescue(r) B. ONLY Rescue A logs the record with outcome "Transfer to another rescue." Rescue B does not log a second record for the same dog.
Log it if you pulled a dog directly from the community — a stray, a surrender, a neglect case, a deceased animal.
Log it if you know a dog is living in the community but haven't been able to catch it yet — a dog in a ditch, a free-roaming dog you've seen repeatedly, a dog you're actively working to capture. Select "Working on capture" as the situation. That dog exists and deserves to be counted even before rescue is possible.
Do not log it if you received the dog from another rescue — the transferring rescue already has that record.
Do not log it if the dog came from a shelter — this database exists specifically to count dogs outside the shelter system. Shelter pulls are already tracked in official statistics.
This is a beta version — we need your feedback.
The Uncounted launched in 2026 and is actively being developed. We want to know what's working, what's missing, and what would make this more useful for people in the field.
Please send your feedback to:
contact@theuncounteddogs.orgOr use the notes field on the report form to tell us anything we should know.
Your submission goes directly into the shared database. Required fields: Date Found, State, Situation, Outcome, and Full Name.
For organizations that prefer to log multiple dogs at once. Fill in each row, add rows as needed, then submit all at once. Name and organization apply to all rows — enter once at the top.
| # | Date * | City / Area | County | Specific Location | Dog Type | Color | # Dogs | Situation * | Outcome * | Outcome Detail | Injured | Notes |
|---|
All rows are submitted directly to the shared database. Required fields per row: Date, Situation, Outcome.
If the status of a dog you reported has changed — for example, from "Working on capture" to "Transferred to rescue" — enter the Dog ID you were given at submission to pull up the record and update it.
Enter the name you used when reporting dogs to pull up everything you've submitted and download it as a spreadsheet.