It’s no secret that animal shelters across the country are struggling. The number of animals who need help and are entering shelters as strays or surrendered by their owners keeps increasing, while the rate of adoptions is just not keeping pace. This has resulted in every single animal shelter being overcrowded. And unfortunately, Lawrence Humane is no different. We have been operating at maximum capacity for nearly two years and the number of animals who need our help only grows.
Truth be told, there are simply more animals in need of homes than there are adopters. This is why spaying and neutering pets is one of the best ways we can proactively address the overcrowding challenge – it’s preventative care at its best!
Every animal adopted from Lawrence Humane leaves the building already spayed and neutered. But did you know that we also offer low-cost spay/neuter surgeries for owned pets? In 2024, the Lawrence Humane clinic spayed/neutered 2,087 shelter animals and 1,508 owned animals. And thus far in 2025, we’ve already spayed/neutered 1,221 shelter animals and 782 owned animals! That’s a whole lot of animals that won’t be contributing to the pet overpopulation problem!
However, not every pet owner can access or afford private veterinary care to have their pets spayed/neutered. Due to the national shortage of veterinarians, clinics are booked out for months at a time, and as all pet owners know, veterinary care can be costly. There are so many loving, responsible pet owners who want to get their pets spayed/neutered, but struggle to afford the cost of surgery – all across the country and right here in Douglas County.
At Lawrence Humane, we never want cost to be the reason that someone doesn’t get their pets spayed/neutered. We believe that accessible spay/neuter services are in the best interest of the entire community, so if someone needs help subsidizing the cost of surgery, we want to help them. And now we have an incredible opportunity to help EVEN MORE pets get spayed/neutered!
For every donation made to help with the cost of a pet’s spay/neuter surgery, our incredibly generous friends at Hill’s Pet Nutrition will match it between now and September 15, up to $10,000! This means that your donation will be DOUBLED and you will be helping TWICE as many pets in Douglas County get spayed/neutered!
At a time when the shelter is operating at maximum capacity, when there are more animals waiting to move to the adoption floor than we have kennels for, and when our incredible fosters can’t take in any more animals simply because they are already housing one or more foster animals, the most responsible – and kindest – thing we can do is help get as many community pets as possible spayed and neutered.
In 2024, kittens accounted for 47% of our feline intake population and puppies accounted for 28% of our canine intakes. And so far in 2025, things aren’t much better. What’s more – all of these were unplanned litters, most of whom were found dumped in boxes or abandoned at the shelter, and who had zero vet care or proper nutrition before finding their way to us.
Not only does spaying and neutering pets help reduce the number of dumped, stray, and abandoned puppies and kittens who enter the shelter system, but it also helps reduce the number of adult animals who are surrendered and dumped. Spaying/neutering pets is shown to help with the behavioral challenges that often lead to adult animals entering the shelter system, such as territorial marking, fighting, roaming at-large to find a mate, and some forms of aggression.
While the state of animal sheltering is quite challenging right now, we find comfort in knowing that our partners (like Hill’s Pet Nutrition!) and our community members (like YOU!) are in our corner and have our backs. We could not achieve our 95% life-saving rate without your support!
Pet Resource Center: 9am-6pm, every day
1805 E. 19th Street
Lawrence, KS 66046
(785) 843-6835
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