Benefits of Spaying or Neutering

Benefits of Spaying or Neutering

  by Oona

     
Not spaying or neutering your pet is kinda like smoking cigarettes these days… Unless you’re a certified breeder, there really aren’t any great reasons to keep your pet from getting “fixed.”Has anyone else ever thought that term is really funny? I mean, the cat isn’t really broken before she gets spayed. Anyway, in case you or someone you know needs a couple more good reasons to get their pet spayed or neutered, here’s a few…

Studies have shown that female dogs and cats spayed before puberty (that’s typically around 5-9 months for a cat, and 6-10 months in small dogs and 8-12 months for a large dog) have a significantly lower chance of developing breast cancer than unspayed pets, or those spayed later in life. Health problems that can be associated with having litters are also eliminated with spaying. And then there’s always the great benefit of not hearing cats in heat trolling the neighborhood. If you’ve ever been woken up to that sound before, you know what I mean! And if you haven’t, imagine the sound in this video happening for an entire night. (You might want to turn the volume down if you’re in a cubicle or have a dog in the office like I do today…)

With neutering, testicular cancer is no longer a concern and the risk of prostate problems is greatly reduced. In addition, male pets who are neutered typically don’t “wander” as much looking for a mate, which lowers the chance of your dog or cat running away and being the next pet on the block with expensive bionic joints (the result of a car accident, tons of surgery, and a few vet bills, of course).

And then there’s the all important MASSIVE number of pets who are currently homeless or in shelters right now across America, because of all the cats and dogs who weren’t spayed or neutered before they could have litters. Did I mention yesterday that 8 million pets go into shelters every year and only 4 million come out? Did I? Yeah, pretty sure I did. Just think about it. And think about the positive impact we could have on a ton of animal lives if we made sure to spay and neuter as many as humanly possible. Yeah, pretty awesome.

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