Yikes! 10 million homeless animals enter overcrowded shelters every year.
What you may not realize is that for each planned or “accidental” puppy or kitten you sell or have to give away, one more well-behaved, healthy shelter animal could be euthanized instead of adopted. In some shelters, up to 75% of all incoming animals have to be euthanized to make room for more. And in some shelters, 25% of the animals are purebred!
Please think twice before breeding your cute pet in hopes of getting a beautiful replica. Your animal is one of a kind, and their offspring will have their own distinct personalities. Those great personalities are already waiting for you in a shelter. Go and find them!
Oops! 50% of litters are not planned.
Because the desire to produce offspring is so strong in animals that have not been fixed, intact cats and dogs will go to extremes for the chance to mate. Even when you are as careful as possible, your pets can still find a way to breed with others; some in ways that you may have never thought possible. Intact dogs (particularly males) will break through screens, chew leashes, jump over, or dig under, 6-foot fences, or even mate through the fence! And even if your pet is safe in your yard, it doesn’t mean that another roaming animal won’t come and join them!
In addition, animals will breed with their relatives, their siblings, and even their parents. They do not understand those relationships the way that people do.
Spay and Neuter
The single most important thing that we can do to save cats and dogs from all the suffering and death that their overpopulation causes is to spay and neuter them. Spaying and neutering are routine, affordable surgeries that can prevent thousands of animals from being born, only to suffer and struggle to survive on the streets, be abused by cruel or neglectful people, or be euthanized in animal shelters for lack of a loving home.
What are the benefits of spaying and neutering your pet?
By spaying or neutering your pet, you’ll help control the pet homelessness crisis, which results in millions of healthy dogs and cats being euthanized each year simply because there aren’t enough homes to go around. There are also medical and behavioral benefits to spaying (female pets) and neutering (male pets) your animals.
Sterilized animals live longer, happier lives. Spaying eliminates the stress and discomfort that females endure during heat periods, eliminates the risk of uterine cancer, and greatly reduces the risk of mammary cancer. Neutering makes males far less likely to roam or fight, prevents testicular cancer, and reduces the risk of prostate cancer.
Remember, balls are for fetching.. Neuter your dog
Signed,
a dog mom