"If we all came together to solve the problem, to solve the issue, and work together — those are the areas that we would see the most improvement."
This episode is sponsored-in-part by Maddie's Fund, OcuTrap, and Strategies to Reunite Lost Cats with Families Certification Workshop and Increasing Your Impact With Targeted TNR Certification Workshop.
The kittens are coming. We know it every spring, but this year, Shelter Animals Count has the data to prove exactly how big the wave will be — and which organizations will feel it hardest. If your shelter or rescue isn't already ramping up fosters, supplies, and community outreach, this episode is your signal to start today.
Tori Fugate is the Director of Communications for Shelter Animals Count — now a program of the ASPCA — and she has spent more than a decade at the intersection of animal welfare and strategic communications. Before joining SAC, she was Chief Communications Officer at KC Pet Project, where she helped transform one of the country's most visible municipal shelters into a national model for innovative, lifesaving work.
Tori joins host Stacy LeBaron to unpack the latest findings from SAC's 2025 Annual Data Report — including the striking reality that 59% of all cats entering shelters in 2025 were kittens under five months of age. They dig into how to use zip-code-level intake data to target foster recruitment and community outreach before the floodgates open, and why creative thinking — think paper collars with QR codes to crowdfund spay/neuter costs — may be just as important as resources and policy.
They also tackle one of the industry's most alarming trends: only 23% of cats entering shelters in 2025 arrived already spayed or neutered, nearly 3% below pre-pandemic levels. Tori explains how SAC's groundbreaking Altered Status at Intake Report is helping organizations understand where access-to-care gaps are widest — and what shelter communicators can do right now to start closing them.
Press Play Now For:
- Why cats and kittens are just as marketable as dogs — and why the most ridiculous cat names often drive the most adoptions
- The significance of 59% of all 2025 cat shelter intake being kittens under five months of age
- How government shelters and contract shelters are seeing disproportionately higher intake of kittens under eight weeks
- Why only 23% of cats entering shelters in 2025 were already spayed or neutered — and what that means for resource allocation
- SAC's Altered Status at Intake Report: five years of data showing a nearly 3% decline from 2019 pre-pandemic levels
- Creative approaches to community spay/neuter funding, including paper collar QR codes to crowdfund costs
- How shelters can use zip-code-level intake data to target outreach, neighborhood meetings, and foster recruitment
- Practical kitten season communication strategies: media outreach, foster spotlights, and targeted Amazon wishlists
- The importance of flexible, dynamic thinking when managing kitten surges — and how to support community members who can't bring kittens in right away
- SAC's publicly available dashboards including the National Animal Welfare Statistics Dashboard (10 years of data!) and state-level breakdowns
Resources & Links
