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As of 2026, animal shelters in the U.S. take in around 6.3 million animals each year. Almost 60% of these animals are considered stray animals. Stray animals are considered to be domesticated pets or animals that have been abandoned or lost and left without human care. An estimated 700 million animals have been left out on the streets as strays. This could be due to many things, mainly things like abandonment and overpopulation.
Pets are often abandoned due to many factors, many being behavioral, financial, or housing.
Another major factor of abandonment is overpopulation, mostly caused by a lack of spaying and neutering. When asked about this topic, Jen Obal, a spay and neuter vet tech at Chattaneuter, had much to say, “That's one of the biggest, the easiest ways to prevent animal, cat, and dog overpopulation is to spay. Can't have more babies, won't have unwanted litters, won't have overcrowding in shelters, and that's very helpful.” Only about 85% of cats are spayed or neutered, causing rapid overpopulation. Not only does not fixing cause overpopulation, but it can also cause more fatal things, and “It greatly increases the risk for cancer in cats and dogs.”
“A lot of people don't understand the impact that one or two unwanted litters can have on the unhoused animal population,” Mrs. Obal continued. Animal overpopulation, while to most people, doesn’t sound like that big of a deal, can actually turn out to be a huge problem. Overpopulation in animals not only leads to homelessness and strays, but can also lead to euthanization. “that just grows and grows until the shelters are so overwhelmed with animals that they have to euthanize. Plus it takes a toll on the female's health having litter after litter.”
Local Chattanooga spay and neuter clinic, whose mission is to "provide professional, subsidized spay/neuter services to eliminate the unnecessary euthanasia of cats and dogs due to overpopulation and lack of resources while empowering communities to care responsibly for their pets."
While spaying and neutering is one way to help with animal overpopulation, many people also choose to foster animals. Kayla Porth is a Chattanooga local, who has been fostering animals for about five years. When asked about this, this is what she had to say: “it gives me a chance to like give back to my community and feel like I'm actually doing something positive in the world. … and there's just so many animals out there that need help and there's never enough fosters. So, it's my way of giving back.” When asked about overpopulation, she said, “It's a really big issue, particularly in the southern states, like Tennessee, where we don't have a lot of legislation around animal welfare. So a lot of the shelters and nonprofits that work with the animals are doing it primarily on a volunteer basis or… they've got very few resources.”
“I think back to my very 1st cat foster with McKamey. It was a mom, a mother cat with 3 kittens, and she was semi feral, and her kittens were, I don't know, maybe a week old, 2 weeks old. And she was sick and all the kittens were sick as well. And so I picked them all up and brought them home and because she was so scared and not feeling well, she was not allowing the babies to eat. So, I learned how to bottle feed and give them supplemental hydration and just really take care of them around the clock. And then after about a week, she started feeling better because she had been getting regular food and water and was feeling less stressed because she had a stable environment. And then she was allowing the kittens to drink from her milk. So that was a cool experience, just feeling like I was able to give them a safe place to land and ultimately get all of her kittens adopted out. And then we actually adopted the mom and kept her.”
Overpopulation and stray animals are overall a very large problem within our society. There are many things we can do to help, such as spay and neutering, fostering, or gathering with communities to fight for animal welfare. It needs to be shared and cared about.
Jen Obal - Veteranary Assistant at Chattaneuter
Kayla Porth - Animal Fosterer
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