It’s no secret that the sheltering landscape has shifted dramatically over the past few years, but new spay/neuter data from Shelter Animals Count makes it impossible to ignore just how deep the cracks are running.
The Data
In its newly released Altered Status Data Report, SAC analyzed more than 2.2 million animal intakes across 262 organizations from 2019 to 2023. The results show a steady and troubling decline in the number of cats and dogs arriving at shelters already spayed or neutered.
For dogs, prealtered intake dropped by 10.9 percentage points, and for cats, by 5.9 percentage points, a reversal that’s adding even more pressure to already overburdened systems. The numbers are especially bleak among large dogs and strays, with prealtered status falling sharply in both groups.
The Implications
Why does this matter? Because altered animals move through shelters faster. They don’t require surgery prior to adoption, which means fewer delays and lower risks of length-of-stay compounding shelter crowding. In 2023, cats who arrived intact stayed 11 days longer than those already spayed or neutered. For dogs, the gap was four days. Multiply that by thousands of animals, and the math becomes overwhelming.
The underlying causes are complex: pandemic disruptions, economic instability, and a strained veterinary workforce all play a role. But one thing is clear: this growing “unaltered” gap is creating real consequences for shelter capacity, community pet care, and animal outcomes.
You can read the complete report here.
Free Webinar
To explore the findings in more detail, we invite you to join Dr. Julie Levy, Stephanie Filer, and Tori Fugate for a free webinar, Unaltered Trends: A National Look at Sterilization Rates and Shelter Impact, on Wednesday, July 30 at 3:00 p.m. Eastern / 12:00 p.m. Pacific.
Hosted by Shelter Animals Count, this session will unpack key data points by species, intake type, and region, while highlighting the sharpest declines in altered status, how those shifts are influencing length of stay, and what it means for shelter capacity and community-level care. Dr. Levy will also share insights from her latest studies on the post-pandemic sterilization gap, providing critical context on how the pandemic exacerbated surgical shortfalls and what we can do now to catch up.
Click here to register.