Presented by Lincoln County Humane Society
For Once- A Problem We CAN Fix!
We have so many problems facing our society today — the economy, healthcare, the war, etc. They are enormous and complex, with few easy answers. It is frustrating for us, because as Americans, we like to solve problems, we want to fix things. It makes us feel bad when we are powerless to fix a problem. Wouldn’t it be great if there was a huge problem that we COULD solve, that we DID have the answers to, and it was extremely easy to do?
By solving this problem, we could:
•Save 10 million lives a year.
•Reduce our tax burden.
•Ease the suffering of thousands of workers who pay a very high emotional price for the care they give to the homeless, abandoned, neglected and abused.
This problem is pet overpopulation. Consider the following: one female cat and her unsterilized offspring can produce almost 400,000 kittens in seven years. In just six years, a female dog and her unsterilized offspring can produce as many as 70,000 puppies. Shelter workers suffer enormous stress as they do the dirty work for people who continue to allow their animals to breed, who surrender their animals, dump their guilt, and shift the blame onto shelter staff for a problem they created themselves. An employee from the county clerk’s office summed it up nicely when she recently told us, “You don’t have an animal problem, you have a people problem.” She is exactly right. The problem of pet overpopulation is a people problem.
So what’s the solution to this problem? Spaying and neutering. It’s that simple, and that easy. As a society, we don’t need an act of congress, or weapons of mass destruction to fix this. We just need some individual responsibility and a little common sense. By being responsible and spaying/neutering the pets in your home, you are fixing this problem.
Benefits of Spaying and Neutering
Spaying eliminates constant crying, nervous pacing, and bleeding in females in heat. Neutering eliminates the mating urge in males, allowing them focus on other things, like training and being a good companion. Early spaying and neutering prevents a variety of cancers and uterine infections, uterine cancer, and testicular cancer. Spaying and neutering does not impact a pet’s personality or its inclination to protect its territory. Males are not emasculated by neutering and will not become weak or scared or any less of a protector. Spaying and neutering does not make an animal fat or lazy. Too much food and not enough exercise is what makes an animal fat and lazy. (Just like us!)
Many veterinary experts believe pets are healthier if they are spayed/neutered before sexual maturity. Spaying/neutering surgeries have greatly advanced and can now be done at a much earlier age without additional risk to the pet.
If you justify not spaying your pet so your child can experience the “miracle of birth,” please consider instead teaching your child the lifelong lesson of responsible pet ownership and concern for life by preventing unwanted pets. Many people believe it is an animal’s “natural right” to reproduce. Animals do not regard sexuality and childbirth in the same way that people do and do not miss something that occurs because of physical impulses. Isn’t it an animal’s natural right to have a good, loving, permanent home to grow old in rather than facing the outcome of life in an animal shelter?
Pet Overpopulation is EVERYONE’S Problem
Even if you don’t own a pet, the pet overpopulation crisis is your problem. Millions of our tax dollars are spent catching and caring for unwanted and abandoned pets. Human and animal health is at risk because of the danger of transmittable diseases, animal bites, and attacks. Animals without a consistent source of food, shelter, and security are much more likely to feel threatened and attack without warning. When people leave a pet on a roadside, the animal faces a grim future and the person abandoning the animal has put us all at risk. Animal shelters do their best to find responsible, loving homes for animals in their care but the number of available homes is drastically less than the number of homeless.
We live in a world full of chaos, and we often feel powerless to do anything to solve many of our country’s problems. But we are not powerless to help fix the problem of animal overpopulation and homelessness. Please do your part—spay and neuter your pets.