Why Spay or Neuter
- Euthanasia due to being a surplus (unwanted) pet is the number one leading cause of death of companion animals in the US, ahead of cancer, heart disease and accidents.
- Every year five to six million animals are euthanized because there are no homes for them. Millions of others are abandoned to starve, shot or are drowned.
- In addition to saving lives, spaying and neutering can drastically improve your pet's health and life expectancy.
What can you do to stop the suffering?
- Spay or neuter your pet!
Is spaying or neutering good for my pet?
- Early age sterilization of dogs and cats drastically reduces the risk of breast cancer (dogs are the leading mammal to get breast cancer and are nine times more likely to get this disease than people).
- Spaying eliminates the possibility of uterine and ovarian cancer.
- Neutering a male reduces the risk of both prostate enlargement and prostate cancer.
Things to consider.
- Neutering will make your male pet less likely to roam, get in fights, or become lost. Roaming is connected to property destruction and most animal related neighbor against neighbor complaints involve animals which are not spayed or neutered. Most canines which become victims of animal cruelty are intact (unneutered) male dogs; roaming, combined with annoying breeding behavior, place them in danger. 80% of dogs killed on the highway are intact male dogs.
- Pet Overpopulation Affects All Taxpayers (including those who don’t even like dogs and cats!)
- According to the US Centers on Disease Control and Prevention, 76% of dog bites are caused by intact male dogs. Over 333,000 dog bites per year cost around $5000 each, totaling over two billion dollars. (Dogs kept on chains or isolated in pens and away from social contact are two other main factors in dog bites). Spayed and neutered pets are less likely to bite.
- According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the average dog bite seen in an emergency room costs over five thousand dollars to treat.
Over two billion dollars are spent on animal control, essentially to collect, house and dispose of unwanted pets, in the US each year.
- Less than one percent of the money spent to collect, house and kill unwanted animals is spent on spaying/ neutering and education, although spay/ neuter is the only answer to pet overpopulation.
- A Massachusetts study revealed that 90% of unwanted litters are produced by female pets that will later be spayed. Just adjusting the timeline (when the female cat is spayed) could prevent the birth of over two million kittens per year without even adding to the number of spays needed!
- Preventing the first litter increases the value of spay/ neuter programs nationwide.
- The cost to hold and adopt pets nationally is two to five hundred dollars each, the cost of spay/ neuter subsidy is under one hundred.
- Spay/ neuter ordinances that are enforced are effective. In Tulsa Oklahoma, stepped up enforcement efforts resulted in an almost immediate and dramatic drop in unwanted litters entering the shelter!
- Neutered cats are less likely to spray and mark territory, the leading cause of property damage by outdoor cats.
- Unaltered animals often exhibit more behavior and temperament problems than those that have been spayed or neutered.
- It's good for You, Your Pet, and the Community