2025 Year in Review

The PAWS Chicago community always rises to the occasion to save pets in need, and 2025 was a record-breaking year. Thousands of adopters, fosters, volunteers, and donors gave life and meaning to our No Kill promise, while thousands more ensured that prevention efforts of spay/neuter reached more than 27,000 pets.

At PAWS Chicago, everything we do is aimed at generating results. Why? Because animals are dying every day in our community, across the United States, and around the world, and they don’t have to.

We continually monitor our community’s shelter data (especially the city impoundment facility taking in 18,000 animals), stray data to identify where most homeless pets originate, spay/neuter data to identify where more resources are needed, and more. As the problems that homeless pets face change, so much our approach, programs, and engagement. This is how we save as many lives as possible and continue to invest in the highest impact ways on our mission to build No Kill communities.

Here is a look at our Year in Review, showing the lifesaving difference that you helped make possible. In 2025, our supporters enabled PAWS Chicago to:

Serve 27,364 homeless and at-risk pets
Unite 4,918 dogs and cats with new loving families
Perform 21,327 free and low-cost spay/neuter surgeries
Place 2,268 animals in foster care on their path to adoption
Maintain a 97.83% save rate of the homeless pets that came to PAWS
Help Chicago Animal Care and Control reach their highest adoption, transfer, and lifesaving year in a decade, despite taking in nearly 18,000 pets
Earn the highest 4-star rating consecutively since 2003 from Charity Navigator

Together, these numbers represent lives impacted and consistent progress in our No Kill mission. Together, we are building a humane and compassionate community for dogs and cats. On behalf of all the animals we serve, thank you!

2025 Highlights

PAWS Spay/Neuter Results

Last year, the PAWS Chicago Lurie Spay/Neuter Clinic performed an unprecedented 21,327 spay/neuter surgeries—a 24.2% increase over 2024 and the highest annual total in our history.

Since pets reproduce exponentially, controlling the birthrate of unwanted dogs and cats is the single most important component in achieving a No Kill Chicago. Targeted, free and low-cost spay/neuter for families who could not otherwise afford it or for feral cats living on the street is how we prevent pet homelessness and euthanasia.

In 2000, PAWS Chicago opened the Lurie Spay/Neuter Clinic in Little Village to serve communities with the highest number of stray and unwanted pets. PAWS also offers free and low-cost spay/neuter and medical packages for rescue groups, with a special focus on animals at Chicago Animal Care and Control, ensuring that more pets have a second chance of adoption.

Today, the Lurie Clinic is not only the largest high-volume, no-to-low-cost spay/neuter clinic in Chicago, but also one of the largest in the nation.

Since our founding in 1997, PAWS Chicago spay/neuter programs have been instrumental in reducing homeless pet euthanasia citywide by 88.9%.

PAWS Adoption Program Results

In 2025, PAWS Chicago united 4,918 pets with new families through adoption at the Pippen Fasseas Adoption Center and off-site events, a 12% increase from 2024. As a No Kill organization, PAWS Chicago had a 97.83% save rate, despite taking in a vulnerable population. Through robust shelter medicine and behavior enrichment programs, homeless pets at PAWS Chicago are given the best available treatment and rehabilitation before they are ready for adoption and matched with a loving family.

Through 2025, a total of 91,534 dogs, cats, puppies, and kittens have been adopted from PAWS Chicago since our founding.

View all Adoption Program Data

PAWS 360@CACC Results

360@CACC is a public-private partnership between PAWS Chicago and Chicago Animal Care and Control (CACC), the city impoundment facility, designed to provide life-saving resources to Chicago’s homeless and at-risk dogs and cats. As the city impoundment facility, CACC is the safety net for Chicago’s homeless and at-risk animals. PAWS Chicago has designed its 360@CACC programs to provide 360-degree support across the full lifecycle of CACC animals—from prevention of intake to improving live outcomes through adoption, transfer, pet owner support, and spay/neuter.

Adoption Extension

2025 became CACC’s most successful adoption year to date, with 3,626 adoptions—a 20% annual increase and thousands more second chances.

In 2025, PAWS Chicago’s 360@CACC program provided a full-time PAWS staff member on-site to help manage the adoption process, since CACC’s budget does not provide for adoption staffing. In addition, PAWS provided an expanded Adoption Counselor team, bilingual support for Spanish-speaking adopters, and hosted citywide adoption events, altogether connecting more CACC animals with loving homes. By streamlining the adoption process and increasing visibility for animals, CACC reduces shelter stays and boosts live outcomes citywide.

Transfer

In 2025, 22% more pets were transferred to other rescues than in 2024, representing 1,606 additional animals.

The Homeward Bound transfer program moves animals from CACC to partner rescues and shelters, giving them greater chances for adoption and specialized care. This collaboration eases overcrowding, improves live release rates, and allows CACC to focus its resources on animals with the greatest needs. Through spay/neuter support of programs like Rescue Ready, PAWS Chicago assists at providing resources that enable rescue organizations to transfer more animals.

Additionally, PAWS Chicago is the largest transfer partner, taking in 1,983 cats and dogs.

Pet Owner Support

In 2025, PAWS Pet Owner Support team counseled 1,197 families ready to give up their pets at the doors of CACC and Good Samaritans who found pets on the street, referring people to available resources, including those directly provided by PAWS Chicago.

The Pet Owner Support program helps pet owners access resources—like medical care, supplies, or behavioral support—so they can keep their pets instead of surrendering them to the shelter, or they can keep a homeless pet they found if the owner is not located. By addressing challenges before intake, CACC reduces overcrowding and keeps more pets in loving homes.

Spay/Neuter

PAWS expanded CACC’s limited medical resources by providing free and low-cost spay/neuter through our Rescue Ready and Big Fix programs, increasing both adoptions and transfers. In 2025:

Rescue Ready provided 819 CACC pets with spay/neuter and medical resources, helping secure their transfer to other rescues
Big Fix helped 394 large dogs and cats at CACC, the most vulnerable populations, be ready for adoption at CACC

These spay/neuter programs directly enable more animals to leave CACC alive, as all shelter pets must be spayed or neutered before adoption and many local rescue organizations do not have their own veterinarian or have a limited medical capacity. These surgeries directly translate into more live outcomes for Chicago Animal Care and Control animals.

*Comprehensive 360@CACC data will be available at the end of February 2026

Our Community Engagement Results

It is only by engaging people in the cause of homeless pets that we will build No Kill communities. This is why community engagement is the foundation of what we do at PAWS Chicago and in 2025, we saw incredible results:

PAWS hosted 25 adoption events across the city, raising awareness while uniting homeless pets with new loving families.
Volunteers donated 125,010 hours, the equivalent of 60 full-time employees, ensuring no animal went without care and companionship
1,400 foster families opened their hearts and homes to 2,268 fostered animals, allowing pets to grow, heal, and thrive before adoption

Shining a light on pet homelessness—and the resultant killing—has mobilized thousands of people to get involved in our cause. Media engagement is one of our most powerful tools for raising awareness and 2025 was no exception:

PAWS media engagement resulted in 4,681 media coverage moments, helping connect thousands of people to adoption, fostering, volunteering, and supporting lifesaving programs.
PAWS Chicago’s social media presence continued to amplify our mission and help more pets find loving homes. Instagram reached 21 million views and more than 2 million interactions, while Facebook generated 11.6 million views and 560,000 interactions.
In 2025, our website engaged more than 1.4 million users. Plus, 26,883 ComPETibility Quizzes were completed, helping match adopters with the pets best suited to their lifestyle

Results | PAWS Chicago

Results