Thinking about NOT spaying or neutering your pet..read below for more info?

Question

I have read so many questions on here about either pets being pregnant or someone wanting to let their pet out for some "loving". Some just don't realize how important it is to have you pet fixed. As the video below will show there are so many homeless & unwanted pets that die every day. I worked in a shelter & seen countless number of animals die d/t no homes. Everytime you allow your animal to have babies, even if you do find good homes for the babies, you are taking a home away from a homeless shelter animal & probably giving that animal a death sentence. Many shelters still use the gas chamber & that is a horrible way to die for these animals. It can take up to 15 minutes for them to die & the poor animal is clawing so hard to get out of there that they actually RIP out their claws. That is inhumane and so terrible for an animal to spend their last moments alive. Here is the sight I mentioned above go there & click on your language;
http://brightlion.com/InHope/InHope.aspx

P.S. I am posting this same message in the Dog section

Answer 1

I agree that people should spay and neuter their animals. There are just too many cats and dogs born every day for loving homes to be found for all of them. The number of animals destroyed on a daily basis is just heartbreaking.

There are also a great many health and behavioural benefits for spayed and neutered cats too.

Intact toms are at greater risk of testicular cancer and prostate problems which can be severe enough to prevent passage of urine, leading to a ruptured bladder and death.
They will also fight over territory and the right to mate a female. It is a part of being a testosterone-fuelled cat. In fighting, they spread and contract incurable FeLV and FIV. There is no vaccine for FIV. Neutered toms are far less likely to fight and these risks are much reduced. Fight wounds can lead to blood poisoning, abscesses, the loss of eyes or ears and wounds can be life-threatening.

An unspayed female is at increased risk of womb infections which will require emergency hysterectomy in order to save her life. They are also at greater risk of mammary cancer. (Failure to treat these conditions in a pet cat constitutes cruelty). Pregnancy in older females is especially dangerous.

Then there is the matter of spraying and other forms of territory marking, which neutered and spayed cats are much less likely to do. This offensive behaviour is guaranteed to make a pet very unpopular with it's owner.

Thanks for posting - I hope it will persuade others to reconsider their opinion.

Answer 2

Thank you for posting this. Many of us are continually saying this over and over just to get reported for being mean to other users which is not the case.

Anyone who even thinks about breeding any animal should have to spend just one day at a shelter where animals are killed. I'm sure many of them would have at least second thoughts. Only the hardest skinned would go ahead and do it unless they truly were improving their breed and doing it the right way which is probably less than 10% of breeders.

I'm not anti breeding. Far from it if it's done right, but most people are cluless some even to the basics of not knowing how long a pregnancy lasts when they have already bred their dogs. Those are the ones who put most of those poor animals in the shelters along with the owners who are out for "free" puppies/kittens and those who get animals they can;t afford to own.

I alone have rescued over 300 cats in my time. Probably much closer to 400. People breeding so many kittens is an even bigger problem than it is with dogs and Lord knows that's bad enough.

Answer 3

I feel the same way, except that since I am "into" a specific breed of dog and what it does, I am all for the responsible breeding of dogs. If I could not get a Newf from a breeder, I would not be going to a shelter getting a another variety of dog. I do not believe that everyone that gets a dog or a cat from a responsible breeder is putting another animal to death. That is the fault of crappy breeders and people who get pets with no real thought out into it.
I am a vet tech at a cat shelter and have personally put the needle in COUNTLESS cats. Way too many to count.
The biggest problem is that people do not choose to see that pet ownership is a luxury. People who can barely afford to feed and clothe themselves have a crap load of pets. The cannot afford to spay/neuter, let alone get any other vet care. The let the animals reproduce and give them to others who do the same thing. Those people are the real problem.
I breed my dogs on a limited basis. NO dog I have ever produced is in a shelter taking space from another animal. Good breeders ALWAYS take the dog they produce back for that reason. It is the BYB abd pet stores/puppy mills that fuel the shelters never ending supply of dogs.

Answer 4

You have done a great service by showing this clip. So many people don't know or don't care to know what happens to animals at the shelter. This is entirely preventable with spay and neuter.
All of my pets came from the shelters except for my dog who I believe was dumped. I have found that these animals make the most wonderful pets.
Thank you.

Answer 5

Neutering is a completely different issue to declawing because there is benefit to the cat from neutering. In the case of a female cat it can save her suffering womb cancer or pyometra which is an infection in the uterus, this happens because when the queen comes into heat her progesterone levels remain high for 8-10 weeks and thicken in preparation for pregnancy. If pregnancy doesn't occur over the course of several heats the lining of the uterus continues to thicken until cysts form within it, these cysts secrete fluid that create ideal conditions for bacteria to grow within the womb, bacteria is introduced via the vulva. This can happen to young queens but the likelihood increases as the cats gets older. Speying removes the womb and so removes the threat of this happening. Tom cats are notorious for marking and staking their territory and for fighting, this can lead to open wounds which can easily pick up infection in outside conditions and it can also lead to feline leukaemia if the fight is with an infected cat, castration removes most of the male territorial instincts and so removes the need to fight. You cannot compare these procedures with declawing which is always carried out for the benefit of the cat's owner and never for the cat. I'm sorry to say that declawing is the easy option for owners and one which causes great physical and psychological damage to many cats. In more than 25 civilized countries this has been rightly banned for the animal abuse that it is, and our furniture while maybe not PURRfect is good enough, it is love that makes the ideal home and not furniture. When the option of declawing is removed by the ban being enforced in the USA and Canada then owners will either have to tackle their problems in a humane way by providing their cat with scratching posts and gentle training and NOT "swatting" or "bopping" or they will have to decide that to them their furniture is more important than a warm loving companion animal and so not have a cat at all. The ban cannot come soon enough for me and my fellow campaigners, I have seen the damage done to cats by botched declawing operations and I have a collection of personal experiences from cat owners who rue the day that they submitted their cats to this barbaric act.

Answer 6

I am a breeder of Siamese cats and if and when I breed my animals I make sure, as best I can that they go to good homes. Now I do appreciate what you are saying but my animals are a breed that people look for and want.

Answer 7

By Next Year the bill for the Spaying and Neutering will be presented to the Senate again and if it passes then people will have to get their pets Spayed and Neutered and then they will have to get it done or they will have to pay a 500.00 fine. It is going in front of the Senate again in Janurary.

Answer 8

i feel the same way and i cried reading the last part of your message. my cats are both fixed and if i get a new cat ill definatly get it from the shelter, probably could save a cat's life!

Answer 9

When I saw that video, i wanted to cry. It's horrible how many animals they kill! I hope that things will get better in the future.

Answer 10

i always get my animals fixed, but that is so sad about the gas chamber thing!!!!! Thats why i always get my animals from a no-kill shelter.