It Pays to Neuter and Spay

It Pays to Neuter and Spay That means that 3-4 million dogs and cats in the U.S. become euthanized in shelters each year. By spaying or neutering your cat or dog, you may help lessen the cat and dog over-population.

If your unaltered animal runs away and never finds its way back, it can produce 18 kittens or 10 pups each year. If it is never taken in by someone else, that could mean it can produce up to 280 kittens or 150 puppies, depending on how long it actually survives on the street. Don’t forget that the animal’s offspring will also contribute.

Not only are there benefits on the pet over-population, but there are also benefits to you and your pet. According to HSUS’s website, it reduces the risk of cancer to your pet's breasts, uterus, ovaries, and testicles. It also reduces the risk of your dog biting you or your pet spraying (urinating) your house up. Also, animals in heat often actually TRY to escape.

Sometimes, animals accidentally become pregnant even if they are at home. Plus, what if your animal does come back? Then, you’ll wind up paying for the care of an extra 3-4 kittens or 6-10 pups until you find them new homes. Altering your pet only costs up to $100-200. That’s if you don’t take your animal a low-cost program provided by an animal welfare group. If your animal becomes pregnant multiple times, wouldn’t it be cheaper?

What if you can’t find homes for the offspring? Do you honestly think it’s easy to re-home all those puppies or kittens? If it were, shelters wouldn’t be over-crowded with them! Puppies and kittens often DO get euthanized every day! Do you think you could keep them? Eventually, they’ll start inbreeding with each other if you don’t get them spayed/neutered. That means you could spend a minimum of $300 extra for kittens or $600 for puppies if you choose for them not to inbreed. If you DO choose to let them inbreed, you could end up with a minimum of 27 cats or 36 dogs a year. You definitely cannot handle that. These offspring will also have mutations due to being inbred.

Some facts you mightn’t have known about the over-population:

  • 30% of it consists of pure-breds
  • 20,000 unwanted animals are euthanized every day in the U.S.
  • Every day, 70,000 puppies and kittens are born in the U.S., while only 10,000 human babies are born each day in the U.S.
  • An animal in the U.S. is euthanized every two seconds
  • At least 50% of the over-population consists of unaltered males

By spaying/neutering your cat or dog, there will definitely be benefits for you, your animal, and the animals trapped in shelters.

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