Newcastle Cat Neutering Campaign

Helping Pets volunteers are constantly promoting the importance of neutering for all cats, however with the rise in cat ownership since Covid and the current Cost of Living Crisis we have noticed a significant reduction in the number of owners able to afford to get their cats neutered. This is leading to a huge increase in the number of unwanted litters and stray / feral cats. This has a number of negative consequences : •The charity is having to deal with an increasing number of unwanted cats needing to be rehomed •The charity of also now seeing an increase in the number of feral cats often in urban areas •Owners are struggling to deal with the unwanted behaviour of a unneutered cat which has a negative impact on the owners mental health. The cost of dealing with these unneutered cats in putting a significant strain on the charity’s funds and the time and effort of our volunteers. The aim of this project is to focus on areas of Newcastle upon Tyne recognised as having high levels of deprivation and working with local vets and community groups to offer free or heavily subsidised neutering to cat owners, along with support to overcome other barriers to neutering their cat, such as transport, access to cat carriers etc. The positive contact with cat owners through this will also enable volunteers to offer advice and support on other areas of cat ownership which we believe will improve the experience of people owning cats as well as the welfare of the cats.

We expect to see a reduction in the number of cats needing to be admitted to rescue from the areas targeted by the campaign. We are also expecting to see a reduction in the number of feral / stray cats reported in these areas. We expect to be able to evidence these benefits from the charity records over the year following the campaign. Although harder to quantify we also believe this campaign will have a positive impact on the wellbeing of the cat owners.