Should You Neuter Your Pets?

According to Animal World Network, for every human baby born there are seven puppies and kittens born. Everyone knows there are way too many stray dogs and cats out there, but have you considered the health and environmental impacts of all that?

I'd like to know:

• How much clay is mined and then dumped in landfills for litter boxes
• How many chickens, fish, cows, lambs, pigs, turkeys, etc are raised/caught and slaughtered for pet food
• How much other food is grown, processed, and fed to companion animals
• The drugs, hospital materials (syringes, surgical tools, etc) are used for veterinary clinics
• How many wild birds, lizards, and rodents are being killed by cats and dogs worldwide

I love my cat, and I love the fish in my aquarium. It is not practical, feasible, or even desirable to suggest that nobody should keep pets. However, it's out of hand. This could go in many directions, but for now let's focus on cats.

Cats should not be allowed to wander freely outdoors, especially if they are able to reproduce. If an animal can reproduce, it will!

They don't do dinner and a movie, either. In a single season, a male cat can impregnate twenty females. TWENTY. Those females then go on to raise four to six kittens each, which are ready to reproduce the following year...and you can easily see where this is going.

Dogs have the same problem, but they seem to be more controlled by dog licenses and bylaws. There are less stray dogs (where I live anyway, but I can't speak for many places I've visited, such as the tropics where stray dogs are everywhere and there are few cats). In my city dogs must be leashed or contained some way when outdoors. Nobody lets their dog roam the streets, that would be crazy. It's unheard of. So why is it okay for cats?

Is it because cats are less valuable than dogs, or considered less dangerous to humans? Why?

It is not mandatory to spay or neuter cats and dogs, but I believe it should be (and the cost should be subsidized, since this is the primary reason many animals go unfixed). Breeding of ALL animals should be left to qualified breeders who are licensed or certified. This would solve a lot of the pet issues that we have, and seriously reduce the pressure on animal welfare or shelter organizations.

Here's a breakdown of how subsidized spay/neuter programs and breeder certification programs will help animal shelters:

• Obviously less unwanted kittens or puppies to be cared for and/or euthanized
• Less animals means more value is placed on pets that are purchased from a breeder or adopted from a shelter, which will lead to less abuse by careless owners with "free kittens"
• No more puppy mills  or colonies of stray cats
• Requiring a license or certificate to breed animals would lead to healthier pets going home to families, which would reduce the need for a huge supply of veterinary medicine and medical supplies

Some may argue that everyone has the right to a family pet, and that making pets more expensive to obtain (ie. must be purchased from a breeder or shelter, and mandatory spay/neuter) is unfair, but in my opinion there are too many situations where pets are taken in by a family or individual who doesn't have the means to care for the animal properly. More value would be placed on pets that cost more money to obtain. If someone can afford the purchase cost of the pet, they should be more able to pay for proper care as well. 

The sad truth is that "free to good home" too often doesn't lead to a good home at all.

If you're not aware of the pet population crisis, this is a little of what I've seen:

My town has started a $20,000 capture, neuter, release program. In a small town of about 30,000 people, there are estimated to be over one thousand stray cats. This is insane. I have a colony of dirty feral cats living in my neighbourhood, peeing in my crawlspace and garden, rooting through the trash, and decimating the local small wildlife population. We found a scruffy, sickly little kitten in our recycling bin just the other day. His eyes were so infected they were swollen shut.

Not only is this heartbreaking to see, but it's not sanitary for human or animals in the area. It makes it more risky to bring healthy, cared for pets outdoors because of the elevated risk of disease among the stray cats. I'm just glad there are no packs of wild dogs running the streets in my town. 

At the very least, if spaying and neutering of pets is not made mandatory, I think the leash/tag/containment bylaws that apply to dogs should also apply to cats to keep the population under control.

What do you think?