This week, in honor of World Spay Day, we shared news that fills our entire BISSELL Pet Foundation team with hope: the Dave & Cheryl Duffield Foundation has issued an extraordinary challenge to our Fix the Future® program, complete 600,000 spay/neuter surgeries in just three years. To help us meet that goal, they are committing $6,000,000 over the next three years.

It is one of the most meaningful partnerships in our history, arriving at a time when access to spay/neuter is more limited, and more urgently needed, than ever before.

Why This Matters Now

In 2025 alone, Fix the Future veterinarians performed 210,000 spay/neuter surgeries across 28 states, preventing millions of pets from entering shelters and helping families keep the pets they love. But despite this progress, the crisis of access continues to deepen, especially in rural communities, where veterinary care is slipping farther out of reach.

And this week, on World Spay Day, I received a call that perfectly illustrates why this work is so urgent.

A rescuer was helping a man with about a dozen dogs on his rural property, none of them spayed or neutered. One female had just given birth, adding nine puppies overnight. BPF’s Animal Incident Management® team immediately secured placement for the mother and her litter and arranged spay/neuter services for the adults.

That was Saturday.

By Monday morning, two more females had given birth, bringing the total to 19 puppies.

This Story Ends with Hope

Today, all three mothers and their litters are in foster care with one of our shelter partners, where they’ll grow healthy and strong before finding loving homes. The mothers will be treated for heartworm, an easily preventable disease. Several of the other dogs were placed with the same partner, receiving the care they need to prepare for adoption. Others will be spayed/neutered, provided with wellness care, and returned to their owner with the supplies needed to keep them healthy.

Yes, this is a story with a happy ending for these dogs. But it is also a story about what happens when a community has nowhere to turn for basic veterinary care.

In many parts of the country, there are almost no accessible or affordable options for spay/neuter or wellness services. This is not a failure of pet owners. It is a failure of access.

Pets are family. When families cannot find or afford care, both the humans and the animals suffer. This is why our partnership with the Dave & Cheryl Duffield Foundation is so powerful: together, we are breaking the cycle.

Join Us.

On this World Spay Day, we invite you to stand with us.

• Support your local spay/neuter programs.
• Share the message of prevention and access.
• Help us meet this bold challenge and expand care to the communities that need it most.

Together, we can save lives.

Until every pet has a home,