The Overpopulation Problem
An increase in animals across our community isn’t a singular issue. Unexpected litters place a burden on families, leading many to choose to surrender the unintended offspring to a shelter. If they are unable to access or afford spay/neuter services, many families are also choosing to surrender their unaltered adult pets to avoid the risk of unwanted litters.
At Oregon Humane, we’ve experienced a 58% increase in kitten intake from 2020 to 2025.
For some families, the only option is to keep and attempt to care for unwanted litters, leading to overcrowded households that quickly become overwhelmed as pets continue to multiply. In the past few years, Oregon Humane Law Enforcement has seen an uptick in reports of overpopulated households struggling to provide adequate care for their pets.
The Impact
As the number of unaltered pets in our community grows, the number of animals entering the shelter system who need spay/neuter services also increases. This means longer shelter stays while these animals receive and recover from spay/neuter surgery—reducing kennel capacity for other animals and reducing surgical capacity for pets coming in through our public clinics.
The Solution
The issues we face with pet overpopulation all lead back to the same solution—spay/neuter. Oregon Humane provides low-cost spay/neuter for pets each week through the Spay & Save program, but the demand far outpaces the availability of services.
To help as many pets as possible, Oregon Humane hosts two annual large-scale spay/neuter events for pets in the community. During these events we take an “all hands on deck” approach, pausing other veterinary services for the day. The most recent “super-sized” spay/neuter event was Wednesday, July 8, and between our two campuses, surgery was completed on 237 cats and 32 dogs on that day alone—more than the number of pets typically served by Oregon Humane in one month. The next super-sized spay/neuter day is scheduled for Oct. 28.
Expanding Care in the Mid-Valley
Through our work at our Salem campus, we have seen firsthand how the mid-Valley is disproportionally affected by a lack of access to care. In 2027, Oregon Humane will take an important step toward meeting that need, with the launch of our Mobile Veterinary Clinic out of our Salem campus.
