SPCA makes significant impact on animal overpopulation with desexing work

Over the 2025/2026 financial year, SPCA desexed a total of 24,025 animals. This marks a significant increase of 21.7%, or 4,289 more animals than in the previous year.

“We’re truly proud of this achievement, which is a reflection of the hard work and dedication from our teams alongside various partner organisations and vet clinics,” says Rebecca Dobson, SPCA’s Head of Community Operations.

From the 24,025 animals that have been desexed over the past year, an estimated 86,986 unwanted animals have been prevented from being born.

“It’s when we stop and look at these numbers that we can really appreciate the positive impact this work has for pet owners, communities, and the animals themselves,” Rebecca says.

“That’s nearly 87,000 fewer animals being born into potential lives of neglect, putting pressure on rescues organisations and needing to find homes. The ‘P’ in SPCA is for ‘Prevention’ – and that’s what this is all about.”

SPCA has a variety of different desexing initiatives, helping the public to overcome barriers to desexing including cost, and accessibility. Read on to learn more about the results from these initiatives over the past year.

Snip ‘n’ Chip campaigns help cat owners get their pet desexed and microchipped for a heavily discounted rate of just $30.

“Our Snip ‘n’ Chip campaigns are aimed at cat owners who either can’t afford the normal cost of desexing surgery, or just hadn’t considered getting this done,” Rebecca says. “If the cat isn’t already microchipped, this is strongly encouraged when getting the cat desexed through these campaigns. This helps owners to be reunited with their pet, if they were to ever become lost.”

Snip ‘n’ Chip also encourages cat owners who don’t currently know their local vet to get to know one, and build that relationship.

“We aim to target each area in New Zealand once every calendar year, so we can reach as far and wide as possible,” Rebecca says.

Over the last year, that included Snip ‘n’ Chip campaigns in Northland, Auckland, Waikato, Taranaki, Taupō, the Bay of Plenty, Napier, Hastings, Palmerston North, Wellington, the Tasman and Marlborough region, Christchurch, Waihi, Ōpōtiki and the Southern region.

At times, Snip‘n’ Chip campaigns are funded by an external sponsor – like Auckland’s Snip ‘n’ Chip, which included funding from Auckland Council and six Local Boards. This campaign targeted communities living near threatened species sites.

“We have a great relationship with Auckland Council, and deeply appreciate their regular sponsorships of Auckland Snip ‘n’ Chip,” says Rebecca.

A total of 8,768 cats were desexed through these 14 campaigns across the country, preventing over 35,000 kittens being born.

This grant was set up back in 2022, with the goal of providing financial support for desexing projects for other animal rescue groups.

“There are so many other rescue groups and individuals out there who are trying to make a difference through desexing projects, and we know one of the biggest barriers they face is cost,” says Heidi Olsen, SPCA’s National Desexing Programmes Lead.

“We set up this grant to help them alleviate that financial burden.”

Last year, a total of 41 grants were awarded, with $275,000 being provided to different rescue groups.

This has resulted in over 1,567 animals being desexed, preventing an estimated 5,599 unwanted animals being born.

Last year saw the launch of our Outreach Vouchers. These SPCA desexing vouchers are provided to external groups and other rescues, for them to directly distribute to those in need.

Outreach Vouchers were provided to rescues groups including The Dog Rescue Project, The Best Dog Trust, Coast to Coast Cat Rescue, and Whangārei Cat Rescue.

They were also provided to Auckland Council Animal Management – this resulted in 298 dogs being desexed, preventing an estimated 745 unwanted puppies.

Other councils have since collaborated us with and received Outreach Vouchers, including Far North District Council and Kaipara District Council.

In March of this year, the Government invested nearly $500,000 from Hon Brooke Van Velden’s Lottery Minister’s Discretionary Fund to deliver a targeted 12-month dog desexing programme aimed at reducing roaming dogs, uncontrolled breeding, and community harm across Auckland and Northland.

SPCA contributed an additional $700,000 towards this initiative, bringing the total investment to almost $1.2 million.

This came after an increase in roaming dogs and dog attacks in these particular areas.

SPCA partnered with vet clinics across the region including TopVets, Far North Vets, Mog and Dog Desexing Clinic Auckland and Whangārei, Māngere Veterinary Clinic, Lynfield Vets, Piano Hill Vets and Vet Trust Henderson.

Since May, a total of 1,611 dogs have been desexed – estimated to have prevented 4,028 unwanted puppies from being born.

“This project has been very successful so far. We’re aiming to desex 3,000 dogs and have hit just over 54% of that target already,” says Rebecca Dobson.

The mobile clinic, known to the SPCA team as “Snippy”, visited Reefton in March.

Many pet owners in this small West Coast town struggle to access veterinary services, and would typically need to travel long distances to have their pets desexed.

The SPCA Mobile Desexing team were able to desex 28 cats and 11 dogs - a total of 39 animals over the four-day campaign.

Additionally, they also administered 35 vaccinations, 32 microchips, and 74 parasite treatments.

Snippy will be hitting the road again in October of this year, and is expected to be fully booked.

SPCA is proud to support pet owners, communities and rescue groups through these ongoing desexing initiatives. If you would like to help contribute to future desexing projects, you can donate via the link below.