We all love puppies and kittens, and why wouldn’t we? They’re warm little balls of cuddly fur, and just watching them play with one another is enough to soften even the hardest heart.
But the world doesn’t need another litter of puppies or kittens, and as a responsible pet owner, it’s your job to make sure your dog or cat isn’t contributing to the already out of hand problem of pet over-population.
Why spay and neuter? Here are just 5 reasons:
- The ASPCA estimates that 3 to 4 million animals are euthanized in US shelters every year. This is because there are not enough home for the unwanted pets that already exist – so why add more?
- According to Petfinder, only one of every 10 dogs ever finds a permanent home. That means only 10 percent of all puppies born ever have a family and a home of their own. The other 90 percent are part of that 3 to 4 million that never make it out of the shelter.
- Spaying and neutering provides numerous health benefits for your pet, enabling it to live a longer, healthier life. Spaying helps prevent breast cancer and uterine infections in females, and neutering can reduce the risk of testicular cancer in males. And contrary to old wives tales, neither procedure will make your pet fat.
- Pets that are spayed or neutered have less desire to roam. That means your pet is less likely to escape and become lost, get into fights with other animals, or experience a traumatic injury like being hit by a car.
- Spaying and neutering is the cost-effective alternative. It is much cheaper to pay for your pet’s surgery than it is to properly care for an entire litter of kittens or puppies. And if you need financial assistance, there are low-cost spay and neuter clinics all over the country.
Want to learn some shocking statistics? Check this out:
- The Humane Society of The United States estimates a female cat and her offspring can produce 420,000 cats in just 7 years. What if your neighbor’s cat does the same thing? We’re looking at almost 1 million cats, all because their owners weren’t responsible enough to spay and neuter.
- A female dog and her offspring will produce 67,000 dogs in 6 years. Again, the result of one person’s carelessness.
- A staggering 61 percent of all dogs that enter shelters are killed; even worse, 75 percent of all cats don’t make it out alive.
- USA Today reports that the burden on taxpayers is $2 billion per year to impound, shelter, euthanize, and dispose of homeless animals. When you look at it from that perspective, it’s easy to see that this isn’t just an issue for pet owners – it impacts all of us.
These are just a few of the reasons why spaying or neutering your pet is the responsible thing to do. Can you think of others? Please share in comments below!
Pam says
August 8, 2013 at 6:21 pmExcellent post!! I’ll definitely be sharing this, and more than once! I wrote a post a while back regarding our local spay/neuter ordinances and how they are not enforced. I wrote the post for Blog the Change day, and the whole point of it was to encourage/support getting pets spayed/neutered, whatever that may take. I think people missed that overall point (my fault – I guess) and the post was not received well; I got mostly negative comments. Oh well, it opened up a long discussion, as I posted a lengthy reply to each commenter. Can’t win ’em all, I guess.
I’m so glad that there are people like you out there to create posts in a more intelligent and palatable fashion than I. I can’t see anyone arguing with the points on spay/neuter in this post. Again, I will definitely be sharing.
Christina Berry says
August 9, 2013 at 12:32 amPam, I’ll definitely check out the post you wrote about spaying/neutering and your local ordinances. I can’t see why on earth such a post wouldn’t be well received – it’s such an important topic. Sometimes people just want to argue, I guess. :/
Thanks for sharing my post. Somehow we have to make people understand the importance of spay/neuter. I believe that’s really where we have to start if we want to save shelter animals.
BoingyDog says
August 9, 2013 at 2:49 amThank you Christina! This is fantastic! I recently read that 90% of violent dog attacks are from intact male dogs. I was surprised by that number!
Kimberly Gauthier says
August 9, 2013 at 11:04 pmOMG that statistic is jarring and heartbreaking. It’s funny how I can sometimes get so wrapped up in me and then I read something like this and see that I really don’t have any problems and I can help. Thanks for sharing!
Jan K says
August 10, 2013 at 8:06 amGreat post! You get right to the point with statistics to back it up. We can’t get the word out about this enough. It always surprises me when I meet someone with a dog that has not been spayed/neutered. Why? What are they thinking? There are still a lot of myths out there that people believe. Sharing!
Terri says
August 10, 2013 at 8:20 amThis is a very big issue on most of the dog forums I visit. There are numerous health reasons for keeping an intact dog or waiting until they are a certain age before spay/neuter. I also have a lot of friends with intact dogs as they show them. If a person chooses not to alter their dog for health or show reasons, they obviously need to be able to strictly monitor their pups in order to not have oops litters. The problem with making such blanket statements as all dogs should be altered, is the people who are reading these dog blogs are educated, loving dog owners who would not be having the oops litters. Your audience should be the people who would never be in a forum or read a blog because they are the ones who need the education. And yes, all of my dogs are altered, the one I had the choice with (from a breeder) was altered at an appropriate age for health.
Tina B says
August 11, 2013 at 3:44 pmI completely agree with Teri’s well-written comment. It’s unfortunate these statistics will probably not be read by the folks who need to see them. 🙁
Also, there are many good arguments for NOT spaying or neutering our canine and feline family members…or at the very least, not having the surgery performed until the animals are well beyond it growth/maturity time frame (18-24 months).
Sarah & Lola says
January 10, 2014 at 1:10 pmIt makes me so mad….as Tina (above) said, unfortunately the ones that need to see this probably won’t. Reminds me of when I was on Instagram the other day and looking under the tag “staffy”. I must have came across 3 different backyard breeders (after digging/stalking their accounts). It was all I could do NOT to leave a comment saying, “yes, your puppies are freaking adorable but you are the problem.” And the guy who left the comment above asking “how much” scares me…
Dar says
January 27, 2017 at 6:48 pmNot sure if I should neuter my male Pitbull or not.Im getting so much feed back if good and bad.Can you help me clear this up.
Christina says
January 28, 2017 at 2:12 pmYou absolutely should neuter, no questions asked. Why wouldn’t you?
Sam Weaver says
May 1, 2019 at 7:37 pmIt’s great that you mention here that spaying and neutering your pets will make them less likely to roam and this will avoid them getting lost or getting involve to fights with other animals. Last year, we let our pet siamese to go outside our house to have a fun time with some other animals. But for some reason, our cat never came back home. That is why learning about spaying and neutering is such a big sigh of relief. I will share this info with my mom who recently bought another Siamese cat. We will make sure that the cat will undergo the process of spaying so that she will be less likely to get lost and we’ll have her for a long time.