Prevention is the answer: preventing pet overpopulation, preventing the need to surrender pets to shelters, and ultimately preventing euthanasia.
Each day 10,000 humans are born in the U.S. - and each day 70,000 puppies and kittens are born. As long as these birth rates exist, there will never be enough homes for all the animals. As a result, thousands of local animals are euthanized because there are no homes for them. -- many are the puppies and kittens of cherished family pets.
Spay/Neuter is the only permanent, 100 percent effective method of birth control for dogs and cats.
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| Why Spay or Neuter Your Pet |
| Benefits of Spaying (females):
- No heat cycles, therefore males will not be attracted
- Less desire to roam
- Risk of mammary gland tumors, ovarian and/or uterine cancer is reduced or eliminated, especially if done before the first heat cycle
- Reduces number of unwanted cats/kittens/dogs/puppies
- Helps dogs and cats live longer, healthier lives
Benefits of Neutering (males):
- Reduces or eliminates risk of spraying and marking
- Less desire to roam, therefore less likely to be injured in fights or auto accidents
- Risk of testicular cancer is eliminated, and decreases incidence of prostate disease
- Reduces number of unwanted cats/kittens/dogs/puppies
- Decreases aggressive behavior, including dog bites
- Helps dogs and cats live longer, healthier lives
Top 3 Reasons to Spay and Neuter
- It helps to reduce companion animal overpopulation. Most countries have a surplus of companion animals and are forced to euthanize or disregard their great suffering. The surplus is in the millions in the United States. Cats are 45 times as prolific, and dogs 15 times as prolific, as humans.They do not need our help to expand their numbers; they need our help to reduce their numbers until there are good homes for them all.
- Sterilization of your cat or dog will increase his/her chance of a longer and healthier life. Altering your canine friend will increase his life an average of 1 to 3 years, felines, 3 to 5 years. Altered animals have a very low to no risk of mammary gland tumors/cancer, prostate cancer, perianal tumors, pyometria, and uterine, ovarian and testicular cancers.
- Sterilizing your cat/dog makes him/her a better pet, reducing his/her urge to roam and decreasing the risk of contracting diseases or getting hurt as they roam. Surveys indicate that as many as 85% of dogs hit by cars are unaltered. Intact male cats living outside have been shown to live on average less than two years. Feline Immunodeficiency Syndrome is spread by bites and intact cats fight a great deal more than altered cats.
Additional Benefits:
- Your community will also benefit. Unwanted animals are becoming a very real concern in many places. Stray animals can easily become a public nuisance, soiling parks and streets, ruining shrubbery, frightening children and elderly people, creating noise and other disturbances, causing automobile accidents, and sometimes even killing livestock or other pets.
- The American Veterinary Medical Association
- The capture, impoundment and eventual destruction of unwanted animals costs taxpayers and private humanitarian agencies over a billion dollars each year. As a potential source of rabies and other less serious diseases, they can be a public health hazard.
- The American Veterinary Medical Association
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| To view or print a brochure on the benefits of spaying and neutering, click on the PDF logo to the left
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