News Feature

A proactive spay benefits pets & owners alike

We all are heartbroken when we see a social media post of a dog, cat, puppy or kitten that is in the shelter with the words “critical,” “last call,” “scheduled to be euthanized (killed) on [this date],” or “Hail Mary.” Translated, these words mean that the shelter may kill these animals to make room for the next set who find themselves in the same situation.

We do care about them and we let our feelings be heard. So many times we have commented “this is cruel,” “don’t kill them,” “please, somebody save them.” We proceed to alert everyone that we follow on social media, including rescues who may be able to help. This does help spread awareness but it is like leaving the barn door open and then asking why the horse got out. It’s a retroactive step.

What proactive steps can we do? One of the main proactive step is to spay and neuter. I certainly understand this can be a sensitive subject but it’s a critical conversation we all need to have. I am going to highlight the crucial reasons as to why we need to spay and neuter:

• Health Benefits: Allowing even just one litter significantly increases the risk of cancers of the reproductive organs and the life-threatening infection of the uterus called pyometra. Studies have shown spayed and neutered pets live longer than intact pets.
• Behavioral Benefits: Sterilization reduces undesirable behaviors like spraying, roaming, and aggression. Many pets are lost, injured by other animals, or hit by cars because they are out roaming looking for a mate.
• Cost & Time Savings: By spaying and neutering we save money in the long run, since we don’t have the expense or time commitment of preventing costly health issues and caring for unwanted litters. Even if we find homes for every kitten or puppy, and that is a big if, this means fewer homes for the animals sitting in a shelter hoping to get adopted before their kill date comes up. If we don’t find homes, then we have the cost, the health issues, and the inevitable adding to the shelter crisis.
• Reduce Shelter Overpopulation: Our shelter’s Facebook page warns us almost daily about dogs being killed due to overcrowding. Although we might imagine the chained dog who gives birth again and again, research shows that overcrowding is largely caused by caring pet owners who do have their pet spayed, but not until after she has had her first litter. We can prevent a large number of the resulting deaths if we spay our cat or dog at or before 20 weeks old — prior to her first heat.

About half of the pet births are unplanned and many of these puppies and kittens never find homes. Millions of animals end up at shelters and humane societies and many do not make it out alive.

By spaying and neutering, we are proactive pet owners who help the animals, help the shelters, help the rescues, and help the community. Will this remove the need for shelters or humane societies? No, but it’s on the right track to eliminate shelter overcrowding, so the ones that falls through the cracks have a higher chance of survival. Please, spay and neuter to save a life.