Abandoned pets and euthanasia and the one thing you can do about it.

By S.E. Davis

When the city council in Chicago heard the proposal that would require Chicago’s dog and cat owners to spay or neuter their pets, council members were actually surprised by the vehement objections raised by a large number of people. The Chicago Sun Times reports that the council thought it would be a simple, easy proposal to pass in view of the fact that 19,000 dogs and cats had been euthanized in Chicago in 2008 alone. Curbing the birth rate seemed to stand to reason. But the topic proved to be an emotional one. Even the most caring animal lovers wince at the prospect of dispossessing their pets of their god-given parts and a gut reaction rooted in a misapprehension. The predicament of abandoned pets is an epidemic of international proportions and if we are to make any significant inroad in the matter it is time for pet owners to take ownership of the problem and become part of the solution.

 The RSPCA revealed that a total of 11,586 pets were abandoned in the United Kingdom in 2008 – up from 7,347 in 2007 and amounting to over 30 cases a day. That’s a 57% increase in one year, a dramatic jump likely fueled by the economic crisis. Virginie Pocq Saint-Jean, President of the National Association for the Protection of Animals (SPA) in France, where over 100,000 cats and dogs are abandoned each year, said that sterilization is priority number one for the responsible pet owner. “You should never be afraid to castrate your pet,” said Saint-Jean in her interview with France-Soir, “it is not a mutilation but a surgical procedure that brings peace of mind to the owner. In these times of crisis it is difficult to find adopters for a whole litter, neither can the owners afford to keep them all so they end up killed or abandoned. The thing to do is to cut off the tap of reproduction and to insist that pet stores and breeders encourage their clients to sterilize their new pets.”

Animal shelter managers and volunteers often share the same view that neutering or spaying your pet is the most effective way to avoid the spread of the problem. “Now more than ever we need the public’s support not only to be responsible individually but also to raise awareness,” says Siobain Duckworth, President of the Hope Association based in France, “there are so many kind, caring people out there who take that little bit of extra trouble. Without them so many more animals would suffer.  Just last week when a young female kitten went missing, more than likely to end up pregnant immediately, we scoured the small village to no avail. We left photographs in every house. Just when it felt like the proverbial needle in a haystack, I was pleasantly surprised to receive a phone call from a lady who thought she had seen the escapee. It turned out to be another stray, almost identical, and equally unsprayed.  Yet a couple of days later I received another call from the same lady saying she had just caught the first kitten, and volunteered to have it spayed and to pay for anti-biotic treatment, which she could ill afford, and she would continue to feed the little thing and care for it as she has cared for some many others.  This to me is the truest love of all. Not only to care for the needs of today but also act in a responsible way to break the cycle. Every animal lover can be a vigilant warrior for pet welfare.”

Proponents of sterilization are not limited to public authorities and animal welfare advocates, but also includes members of the veterinary profession.  The website for the Dalkeith Veterinary Clinic in Australia lists a number of reasons why sterilization is beneficial both to pets and their owners to:

•           Remove sexual urge to roam in search of a mate

•           Prevent unwanted pregnancies

•           Reduce aggressiveness toward people and other animals

•           Reduce spraying activity in cats

•           Prevent testicular cancer in males

•           Reduce incidence of prostate disease in males

•           Prevent uterine infections and false pregnancies in females

•           Reduce the incidence of mammary (breast) cancer in females

Their friendly website www.dalkeithvet.com.au provides information on what the surgical procedure involves, how to care for your pet before and after the operation, and it even dispels common fallacies such as the belief that female animals should always be allowed to have a litter first when in fact sterilization is best done before the animal becomes sexually active both in terms of the ease of the procedure as well as in the probability of incidence of mammary tumors later in life.

The more we learn about the statistics of abandoned pets and the more information we have about neutering and spaying the more the benefits seem to outweigh the drawbacks by a long mile. If you own a pet want to do the right thing, join the quest to reduce the number of abandoned or euthanized pets in the future and ask your vet about this extremely common and routine surgical procedure.