Alley Cat Rescue's Feral Fix Challenge Achieves Big Gaines for Community Cats Through Hundreds-of-thousands of Sterilizations

MT. RAINIER, Md., Feb. 3, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Participants in Alley Cat Rescue's 2025 Feral Fix Challenge sterilized approximately 120,000 feral cats in the U.S. and abroad.

The goal is to save feral cats from shelter euthanasia through humane population management that prevents suffering, improves health, stabilizes outdoor cat populations, and creates better outcomes for cats and communities alike.

Veterinarians and clinics across 34 U.S. states, Southern Africa, and Europe participated in the 2025 Challenge, working together to humanely manage their local outdoor cat populations. Since the first Feral Fix Challenge launched in 2010, veterinarians from all 50 U.S. states and 13 countries—including Antigua, Canada, Croatia, England, Greece, Israel, India, Japan, Nicaragua, and the United Arab Emirates—have taken part.

As a result of the annual challenge, more than 600,000 cats have been spayed or neutered to date. Through all of Alley Cat Rescue's spay/neuter and TNR programs combined, the organization has now helped sterilize over one million community cats worldwide. View Alley Cat Rescues' TNR MAP.

Alley Cat Rescue founder and president Louise Holton explains the significance of the campaign:

"Veterinarians working together worldwide are critical to achieving our goal of sterilizing all community cats. Sterilization remains the only humane and effective method for reducing outdoor cat populations. This global effort builds a sense of collective responsibility and reinforces the importance of compassionate, nonlethal approaches to animal welfare."

The 2026 cycle of the Feral Fix Challenge is now underway. Veterinarians are encouraged to participate by pledging to provide free or low-cost spay/neuter services to as many free-roaming cats as feasible for their individual practices. Learn more and sign up at www.saveacat.org/the-feral-fix.html.

Non-veterinary supporters can also get involved by emailing [email protected] to request that an invitation be sent to their veterinarian, or to receive a sample invitation to share personally.

Alley Cat Rescue (ACR) is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to the welfare of all cats. ACR advocates for humane, nonlethal population control through trap-neuter-return (TNR) and community education. For more information, visit www.saveacat.org.

SOURCE Alley Cat Rescue, Inc.