Paws Chicago

Prevention & spay/neuter: paws chicago performed 17,168 spay/neuter surgeries in 2024, making it the largest local provider of free and low-cost, high-volume spay/neuter surgeries, and the only clinic located in and serving under-resourced communities where the majority of stray, feral and unwanted pets originate. Through the paws chicago lurie clinic in little village, located less than two miles from chicago's animal care & control, the city impoundment facility, paws offers spay/neuter services where they are needed most and where they have the greatest impact.preventing unwanted pets from being born is key to building a no kill chicago because pets breed exponentially. A single female cat and her offspring can theoretically produce 420,000 kittens in seven years. For dogs, the number is 96,000. Spay/neuter surgeries are the solution to pet overpopulation, and as such, are at the core of paws's prevention initiatives.paws chicago's feral cat trap-neuter-return (tnr) program is another critical aspect of the prevention pillar. By proactively sterilizing and managing the free-roaming cat population, the source of thousands of unwanted kittens born each year, tnr reduces the number of animals entering the shelter system while also saving kittens and finding them adoptive homes. In 2024, paws performed 3,672 spay/neuter surgeries on feral cats. Paws also hosts an annual workshop to build outdoor cat winter shelters, which are distributed in the community.by the end of 2024, paws chicago had performed 332,515 free and low-cost spay/neuter surgeries since the lurie clinic's opening in 2000, which has been a driving force in chicago's reduction in euthanasia during that time.

Adoption: rescuing homeless pets and uniting them with their new families directly connects the public with homeless pets on the deepest level and provides a tangible way for people to make an impact for animals. Through paws chicago's adoption center and innovative adoption events, paws united 4,382 animals with loving homes in 2024. By the end of 2024, paws chicago had performed 86,616 adoptions since the organization's founding in 1997. Using a proprietary competibility quiz, paws uses technology to match pets with prospective adopters based on their lifestyle needs, helping to ensure a long-term fit and match expectations.paws trainers and volunteers offer on-site support and advice, provide detailed pet background and assessment information, conducting resident pet introductions and ensuring a smooth transition into the home. Volunteers offer detailed adoption counseling and follow-up to ensure post-adoption success. Showcasing adoptable pets in highly trafficked places outside of the paws adoption center expands the reach of the mission and inspires action for animals. In 2024, paws hosted 29 off-site adoption events, including high-profile angels with tails adoption events around the chicagoland area where local retailers, professional sports teams and grocers welcomed homeless pets to their locations for onsite adoptions.

Community engagement community engagement is the foundation for creating lasting change for animals and is the basis upon which all of paws chicago's programs are built. People cause the pet overpopulation problem and people have the power to solve it; animals are the voiceless victims. The way to inspire and create real change for animals is to mobilize people to be their caretakers and advocates and provide needed support in under-resourced communities.when paws chicago was founded in 1997, the mass killing of homeless pets was a hidden crisis. The public had no idea that more than 42,000 homeless cats and dogs would be euthanized in the city of chicago that year. Paws chicago was founded to bring attention to the plight of these vulnerable animals and to mobilize public support to develop humane solutions and build no kill communities. Shining a light on pet overpopulation and homelessness- and the resultant killing- has mobilized tens of thousands of people to get involved in the cause by adopting, fostering, volunteering, advocating for and donating to homeless pets.with its no kill model in action, paws chicago is leading a movement that ripples throughout the country. Every year, paws chicago welcomes shelters, rescue groups and individuals nationwide to shadow its operations. Paws chicago also helps start-up adoption/rescue groups and spay/neuter clinics around the world. In chicago, paws helps chicago-area rescue groups and shelters by providing low-cost medical services at the lurie spay/neuter clinic and by increasing exposure of their homeless animals through angels with tails adoption events.by raising awareness about pet homelessness and engaging people in lifesaving efforts, paws chicago makes lasting change for animals. This includes paws chicago magazine, with a distribution of 115,000; the paws chicago website, with more than 1.5 million unique users and 20 million pageviews in 2024; and the paws chicago e-newsletter, with a monthly distribution averaging 179,000 and an open-rate of more than 50%. These vehicles inspire people to take action for animals and become advocates for homeless pets.360@cacc and outreach2024 was the first year of paws chicago's 360@cacc program, a robust 360-degree partnership with chicago animal care & control (cacc), the city's impoundment facility. Of the 18% increase in intake or 2,295 additional cats and dogs coming into cacc in 2024 - 1,875 additional animals had a positive "live" outcome (adoptions, transfers and returned to owner) over 2023. Without this increased lifesaving, euthanasia would have increased by 82%. Instead, euthanasia was up 14%. 360@cacc is oriented at increasing these live outcomes and helping keep pets out of the city shelter through:1) paws chicago medical programs that provide spay/neuter surgeries and other medical care to ensure cacc pets are vetted and ready for adoption. The rescue ready program helps increase transfers of cacc pets to rescue groups by offering highly subsidized medical care and spay/neuter surgeries for pets that came from cacc. The big fix program transports cacc pets to the paws chicago lurie spay/neuter clinic each week to be spayed/neutered and vetted. Together, these programs spayed or neutered 1,336 cacc pets. 39 different rescue groups transferred in animals who were spayed or neutered through these programs and, overall, cacc transfers increased by 19%.2) the adoption expansion program staffs a full-time paws chicago employee at cacc to support prospective adopters in finding and adopting a pet. The cacc budget has never had a staffed resource dedicated to adoptions, which means people would often leave without a pet. With this additional support, cacc facilitated 3,019 adoptions in 2024, a 28.6% increase over 2023.3) pet owner support, where paws chicago team members meet families at the door and help keep pets in their homes with the families who love them or otherwise prevent more pets from entering the crowded city shelter. In 2024, pet owner support kept 123 pets in their homes and 135 came directly to paws, preventing further overcrowding.beyond 360@cacc, paws chicago has operated an extensive community outreach program since 2014 to expand access to spay/neuter and pet resources in chicago's most under-resourced communities. Of the owned pets community outreach meets, 95% are not yet spayed or neutered, but once our outreach team works with families, 83% end up sterilizing their pet at paws.since launching in 2014, the primary neighborhood of focus has been englewood, where more than 49% of the population lives below the poverty line, but services have in recent years expanded to nearby west englewood, back of the yards, and west woodlawn as well. Paws performed 1,377 free spay/neuter surgeries through this community outreach program in 2024.this outreach program also operates a community medicine program that provides 610 appointments for wellness, preventative and acute veterinary care to pets who would otherwise never see a veterinarian.additionally, 84,430 pounds of food were distributed through the paws chicago pet food pantry program, which offers free pet food and supplies to communities in need.volunteersvolunteers are the life force behind paws chicago's operations and an essential ingredient to building a no kill chicago. In 2024, 3,283 volunteers dedicated 125,071 hours of service, the equivalent of 60 full-time employees. And this doesn't include foster families who took in and cared for 2,254 animals in need in 2024. In addition to the time volunteers commit to paws chicago, they are also ambassadors, reaching new people and engaging new communities in the cause of homeless animals through their everyday interactions.animal welfare is incredibly labor-intensive work, and volunteers work alongside our staff to amplify our lifesaving. From shepherding the adoption process to attending to the needs of sick pets at our medical center to manning our off-site adoption and community events, our volunteers support the work of every department.only through volunteers is paws chicago able to execute all elements of the comprehensive no kill model and advance on the mission of building no kill communities.