Since 2013, Nine Lives Greece has participated in Humane Society International’s World Spay Month – a global campaign that spotlights the importance of spaying/neutering. Spaying/neutering is a proven way to reduce stray cat populations and improve their everyday quality of life.

Each February we issue a challenge to our supporters: help us spay/neuter as many cats possible in one month! Our volunteers then work around the clock to trap, neuter and return cats to and from colonies throughout Athens, including in Acropoli/Plaka, Koukaki, Petralona, Omonia, Pangrati, Mets, Goudi, Papagou/Holargos, Psychico, Kaisariani and Kifissia; all in time to be neutered by the World Spay Day deadline.

• In 2014, in addition to our World Spay Month Challenge, we worked hard to spread the spay/neuter message to even more animal lovers here in Greece by enlisting the help of MTV Greece and Jenny Theona (actress, TV star and animal lover) to act as the face of the campaign at Athens’ First Internet Cat Video Festival.
• In 2015, we created the World Spay Day gallery of 150 cats that urgently needed to be spayed or neutered and let our supporters choose the cat they wanted to sponsor. The result was incredible. In just two weeks, every single cat in our gallery had been sponsored.
• In 2016, Nine Lives expanded the challenge to help even more cats, through a gallery of 300 cats on Facebook. Within the month, no fewer than 260 of these cats had been sponsored and taken to the vet to be spayed/neutered.
• In 2017, a record-breaking 303 stray cats in colonies across Athens were sponsored for spaying/neutering through a photo gallery on our blog.
• In 2018, again we set and reached our goal of 300 stray cats spayed/neutered, pictured and detailed in our World Spay Month gallery.
• In 2019, the tremendous response by our supporters meant that a record-breaking 382 stray cats were sponsored and spayed/neutered!
• In 2020, incredibly generous donations from our sponsors made it possible to spay/neuter all 364 cats submitted on our photo gallery.
• In 2021, the warm response by our supporters allowed for our volunteers to trap 254 stray cats for neutering!
• In 2022, thanks to our wonderful supporters and their donations, our team managed to catch 266 cats for neutering!

Nine Lives volunteers work throughout the year, feeding, rescuing the injured, looking for forever homes and providing medical care to those most in need, and our trap-neuter-return programme is at the core of our work. To support these activities, join the Friend of Nine Lives with a donation of 35 euros or more (to help spay a cat) at any time throughout the year.