In every community, in every state, there are homeless animals. In the U.S., there are an estimated 6-8 million homeless animals entering animal shelters every year. Sadly, barely half of these animals are adopted. To help address overpopulation of cats in our area, we provide community residents of northern Wisconsin high quality and more affordable ways to spay or neuter their cats. This program is focused on both indoor cats and outdoor community cats such as farm cat colonies. We work with experienced veterinarians to provide this service at a discounted rate, and often partner with other rescues/shelters as well as various funders to work toward this common goal.

Spaying and neutering helps reduce the number of unplanned companion animals. It helps stabilize outdoor/community cat populations by stopping the breeding cycle. This in turn improves cats’ lives by relieving them of the constant stresses of mating and pregnancy, disruptive mating behaviors like yowling, spraying, roaming, and fighting so cats and people can coexist more peacefully. Spaying and neutering benefits cats’ health, human health, and health of resident wildlife as cats are vaccinated against diseases such as rhinotracheitis, calicivirus, distemper, and rabies.

We help spay/neuter outdoor feral cat colonies by practicing TNR (Trap-Neuter-Return) in which our volunteer team humanely traps cats at a location and transports them to the veterinary clinic to be neutered or spayed and vaccinated. Cats are also ear-tipped on one ear which is the universal sign that a cat has been altered. Once recovered, cats are returned to their colony location where a caretaker continues to provide them food, water, and shelter. Occasionally a cat might be admitted to Helping Paw Rescue to find a loving, indoor home if its personality is compatible and its previous caretaker agrees.