Around 3.3 million dogs end up in animal shelters on a yearly basis. It’s recently been learned that only around 67% of their breeds are properly identified. When shelters try to guess a mixed breed origin, the figure becomes 10%.
The accuracy was measured by Arizona State University researchers. They gathered DNA from over 900 dogs and compared the results.
“The level of genetic diversity in the shelter dogs exceeded our expectations,” the study’s lead author Lisa Gunter said. “We found 125 distinct breeds.”
While the shelters commonly reported they had around 25% of purebred dogs, the actual number was closer to 5%.
