During one weekend in February, the Front Street Animal Shelter partnered with Animal Balance, a non-governmental organization specializing in high-volume spay and neuter. Together, they successfully performed 203 spay and neuter surgeries for animals waiting to be adopted.
This large-scale effort helped address a significant backlog of animals placed in foster care with their future adopters, a program many shelters refer to as “foster-to-adopt.”
Per California law, animals must be spayed or neutered before legal ownership can be transferred from the shelter to adopters.
“The foster-to-adopt program was implemented by our shelter, as well as countless other shelters in Sacramento and beyond, in response to the national shortage in veterinary personnel and spay/neuter availability,” said Phillip Zimmerman, manager at the Front Street Animal Shelter. “Not having these programs would cause shelters to experience extreme overcrowding from pets that couldn’t leave, and would have led to negative outcomes for many, many animals due to lack of space.”
While the foster-to-adopt program saves lives and prevents the need to house animals at the shelter for months while they await surgery, it comes with its own challenges.
“Some of those animals become sick or injured while in foster care and awaiting surgery,” said Dr. Abigail Judge, DVM. “When that happens, it places additional strain on our small medical team, which is already struggling to keep up with medical care for animals at the shelter and regular foster homes. If they were fixed, they would have been adopted, and the care would become the adopters’ responsibility.”
As of March 6, 307 dogs and 91 cats are in foster-to-adopt homes, while 192 cats and dogs remain at the shelter, most of them still needing surgery.
This event was the first of several planned initiatives aimed at reducing the number of animals in need of these essential procedures.
Throughout 2025, six more multi-day spay and neuter events will take place in partnership with Animal Balance and San Diego Humane Society. Expanding these services will help alleviate the strain on shelter staff and further reduce the number of unaltered animals awaiting adoption.
The Front Street Animal Shelter is incredibly grateful for the dedicated staff and volunteers who made the event possible, and community members who have stepped up to foster animals while they wait for surgery.
Visit Front Street’s adoptions page to view available animals. The shelter is open 12 to 5 p.m. seven days a week located at 2127 Front Street in Sacramento.
