In September 2025, we faced a devastating cat crisis at our three centres in London and East Sussex. The level of animal abandonment at our doors was at an all-time high; overwhelming numbers of requests were being received daily from members of the public to take in their unwanted pets; and requests for neutering services for feral cat colonies on the streets of East and South East London, East Sussex, and Kent were higher than ever.

With a no-kill policy, unless animals are beyond any veterinary help, our three centres were full to capacity caring for a total of almost 1,000 cats and kittens, 300 (42%) more than usual. Whilst awaiting rehoming, the cost of their care has taken a financial toll on our charity, detrimentally impacting both the rescue work we can carry out for sick, injured, stray, and feral cats, and the low-cost veterinary services we can provide.

Cause and effect

Cats are prolific breeders and are capable of breeding from four months old. They can produce up to three litters a year, with between two and eight kittens per litter. Many cat owners simply cannot afford to neuter their pets, and their animals are breeding out of control. Unable to care for or find homes for the kittens, many desperate owners are resorting to abandoning unwanted animals on the streets or having healthy pets euthanised.

Today's challenges

In 1995, we opened the country’s first low-cost neutering clinic for low-income pet owners and strays in Lewisham, South East London, to help solve the cat overpopulation crisis. Four years later, we opened a further clinic in Canning Town, East London. With each clinic neutering 150 cats a week, the number of unwanted cats in the area reduced dramatically.

Fast forward 30 years, on the back of the pandemic and cost of living crisis, Celia Hammond Animal Trust is again experiencing the devastating effects of an increasing unneutered cat population, and the situation in 2025 is far more challenging than in the late 1990s as the cost of caring for cats and providing neutering surgeries is much higher.

We desperately need homes and funding to care for the animals in our three centres, as well as donations to pay for a large-scale, low-cost neutering programme to prevent the birth of more kittens into a world where there is no hope of enough homes to go round. Neutering is the only humane and long-term solution to the cat overpopulation crisis.

Together we can make a difference

At our London clinics, we have the necessary veterinary facilities but we could not afford the additional vets, vet nurses, and drug-related costs to neuter more cats. Therefore, in the Autumn of 2025, we launched an emergency appeal to raise up to £230,000 to enable us to neuter, microchip and provide necessary supportive treatment to approximately 3,600 cats during October, November, and December 2025. The aim being to tackle the cat overpopulation crisis by preventing the unnecessary birth of potentially tens of thousands of kittens in 2026.

Cats are seasonal breeders who give birth to their kittens in Spring and Summer, so neutering cats in the Autumn and Winter is vitally important before the next breeding season begins in early 2026.

How you can help

It costs us £45 to neuter a female cat using our own employed vets working at our London clinics (compared to local private vets which charge £150 - £250), and so we are appealing to animal lovers everywhere to support our emergency neutering campaign to help tackle the cat overpopulation crisis.

Whether it is £10, £20, £30 or more, please donate whatever you can afford as we really do need your help.

We are also appealing for offers of new homes for our rescued cats. If you live within a 30-mile radius of our Canning Town, Lewisham, or Brede centre and can provide a forever home for one or more of the cats and kittens in our care, please visit www.celiahammond.org/adopt-a-cat for details of the animals currently seeking homes.

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12 December 2025 | update

Thanks to our amazing supporters, our fundraising total currently stands at £131,430 which is 57% of our overall target.

During the last 10 weeks, our vets have been working hard and have neutered 1,051 cats. We had hoped to have neutered more cats by now but we have struggled to recruit additional vets and nurses, particularly in the run up to Christmas.

Although this fundraising campaign will finish at the end of December 2025, we will continue neutering throughout January and February next year until every penny raised by this campaign has been spent on neutering cats.

We are pleased to report that during the last two months adoptions of our cats increased, and by the end of November the total number of cats in the care of our three centres fell to 863. We are hopeful that this figure will reduce further in early 2026 and that we will find new homes for more of the adult cats currently in our care, which will allow us to then prepare for the 2026 kitten season.