|
Why spay or neuter your pet?
1. Spaying or neutering your dog is an important part of responsible pet ownership.
2. Unneutered male dogs that are not able to mate experience frustration, which can lead to aggression.
3. Unneutered males WILL mark their territory - that means peeing all over anything and everything - and that means INSIDE the house.
4. Unspayed female dogs attract unwanted attention every six months. Other dogs will unmercilesly hump, bully, dominate, sniff and all around ANNOY her (and you).
5. From a psychological and biological point-of-view, it is the best thing for your dog.
6. JUST in the United States, 7 puppies and kittens are born for every ONE person. Think about that. Where do all these animals go? There are just not enough homes for all of these animals.
7. Unspayed and unneutered pets reproduce. Whether by accident, by misinformed owners, or bred intentionally, the shelters are overflowing. Four to five MILLION dogs and cats are euthanized every year. These puppies and kittens wind up in shelters for several reasons:
a. Owners who intentionally breed these animals with intent to sell them may not get the demand they expected. The animal for some reason didn’t sell. It may have been too small, too big, had health problems, etc. But because no one is buying the animal, they did not get the money they expected. It is now COSTING the owner money when the true intent was to MAKE money. The longer they hold onto the cat or dog, the more money it costs them. Remember also, everyone wants a puppy or kitten. If it cannot get adopted as a baby, like the rest of us, the more time goes by older it gets, making it harder and harder to sell. Now what? They now have animals they cannot sell, that are no longer in demand. Where do they go? To the shelter, of course.
b. Owners believe that their unfixed dog or cat will not reproduce.This is a huge mistake. Unfixed animals WILL roam. They WILL run away, the WILL get out, they WILL mate given the opportunity. Animals are driven by a huge and powerful force to procreate. They will jump fences, dig under gates, jump from windows, run between your feet to get through the door. They WILL reproduce, and they CAN smell other unfixed animals regardless of how far away. Because your pet may not have shown signs, does NOT mean that this will not happen. So what happens when the dog or cat gets loose looking for a mate? Most of the time, they get lost and are not recovered. Because these are animals that are not accustomed to being away and running loose, they get lost and cannot find their way home again, once they do find a mate. So what happens now? Your beloved pet that is lost can get hit by a car, attacked by another animal, picked up by animal control - and again, winding up in an overcrowded shelter. The animal that your pet either impregnanted, or is pregnant itself, has created more animals. They too will either live in the street - unfixed, and procreating, or will wind up in the kill shelter as well.
c. Owners “want babies”. It is a beautiful, wonderful thing to have babies. But an owner that breeds their pets simply to have more, is irresponsible. You are taking a chance at the amount of puppies or kittens in the litter. You may be happy to have the adult and two babies, but what if they have 9? Many owners dismiss this, as if they are a fertility expert and will know or “wish it true” the amount of babies they will have. Again, what happens now? 9 babies.. far and few owners will keep them all. So where do the rest go? Some find homes. Some don’t. In fact, a LOT don’t.
d. Babies cost money. Do you know that puppies and kittens require 4 to 5 meals a DAY for at least 4 months? Do you also know that puppies and kittens can pee and poop up to 12 times a day? This is a lot of clean up - a lot of wee wee pads, paper towels and laundry. Many owners are not prepared for these expenses until it’s too late. And because no one else wants to handle these expenses and responsibility… off they go to the shelter with the false believe that “they’re cute, some one will adopt them!” Not true. When there are hundreds - literally - to choose from at the shelter, and more coming in every day - how good do you really think these odds are? We are a rescue group. We work with shelters. You are fooling yourself. Even the best behaved, more adorable, loyal and devoted animals die because there is no room in the shelter because a new batch is coming in.
e. Bad behavior. Puppies and kittens are curious, and do not know the ropes in the world. They shred things, they do not know what is dangerous and what is not. Everything is a toy. Puppies chew up furniture, shred pillows, bark, bite and eat dangerous things like wires, plugs and household cleaners. Kittens will climb curtains, dig in (and eat) houseplants, get stuck on top of shelves and knock things off counter tops and high places. Both will run between your feet tripping you, making you nearly break your neck. People who have not done their research and are willing to put in the hard work and dedictaion to teach these babies right from wrong and discipline them are headed for trouble. And the animals are usually headed to the shelter not long after.
8. Currently, over 56% of dogs and approximately 75% of cats entering shelters are put to sleep.
9. Many people, particularly men, have a hard time sterilizing their pets, projecting their own own feelings on the dog or cat losing their reproductive abilities. An animal will not feel like less of a “man” or “woman” after being fixed. It will not suffer an identity crisis or mourn the loss of having babies. Your dog will simply have one less nagging responsibility that they should not have to endure.
10. A cat or dog’s personality is formed more by environment and genetics than by sex hormones, so spay and neutering will not change your pet’s personality, make your pet sluggish or affect its natural instincts. It WILL give you a better behaved pet!
11. Spayed female cats and dogs no longer experience the hormonal changes during heat cycles that turn your pet into a nervous pet that cries incessantly, becomes clingy and attracts unwanted other cats or dogs.
12. Sterilized animals are much more affectionate and less likely to bite, run away, become aggressive, or get into fights.
13. Another myth is that spaying and neutering cause weight gain. Animals do not get fat simply by being sterilized. Just like humans, pets gain weight if they eat too much and exercise too little or if they are genetically programmed to be overweight. The weight gain that people may witness after sterilization is most likely caused by continuing to feed the same a high energy diet to a pet that is reducing its need for energy as it reaches maturity.
14. Animals reproduce solely to ensure the survival of their species. They do not raise a puppy for eighteen years like we do. They do not dream of their puppy’s wedding. They do not hope for grandchildren. Females nurse for a few weeks, teach the rules, boundaries, and limitations and send them off to join the world. Males are not “fathers” in the human sense of the word; they do not even recognize puppies as their own.
15. Sterilization reduces the risk of health problems that are difficult and expensive to treat. In females, it eliminates the possibility of developing uterine or ovarian cancer and greatly reduces the chance of breast cancer. Also, some females experience false pregnancies and uterine infections that can be fatal. Prostate cancer risk is greatly reduced in males. By sterilizing your pet, your dog will live a healthier and longer life.
IMPORTANT NOTE:
Please contact Rand Animal Rescue if you are in need of low cost pay/neuter programs in your area.
randtanimalrescue@aol.com |
