Pets and people who love them: The benefits of spaying and neutering

Published 6:00 am Wednesday, June 21, 2017

It is Father’s Day evening as I sit down to write this week’s column and I have had a lovely afternoon, celebrating my father on his 60th and my nephew on his first Father’s Day. It was the first time my father had seen his great-grandchild, and the look on his face as he held that little boy was priceless.

So what, you might ask, does this have to do with Pets and the People Who Love Them? Other than the fact that my father and nephew are both animal lovers, not much, but the event inspired this column nonetheless. Where dogs and cats in Limestone County are concerned, we need to do everything we can to prevent as few as possible from celebrating this particular day.

People in the animal rescue business have heard all the excuses: “He’s such a beautiful/good natured dog, it would be a shame to not let him have puppies.” “I can’t stand the idea of neutering him. It seems so cruel.” “He’s a house cat. We won’t have to worry about kittens.” “My dog is purebred. I want to make money by breeding him.”

Well, let me tell you a few facts.

According to the Humane Society of the United States, approximately 2.4 million healthy, adoptable shelter animals are euthanized each year; and I’m sure that many of them had parents who were beautiful and good natured. If you have your pets spayed and neutered, the people who would have adopted your puppies and kittens can instead adopt one of the 2.4 million shelter animals, thereby saving multiple lives.

Spayed or neutered animals tend to live longer, healthier lives. It also tends to reduce behavioral problems in companion animals, which are often the reason that pets end up in shelters. There is nothing cruel about preventing that.

The effects of a female dog or cat in heat are remarkable. My mother tells the story of our neighbor’s ancient beagle who was rejuvenated by our female puppy’s one and only heat cycle. My mother claimed that he would hide behind a blade of grass, stalking our clueless girl when she was out on a leash to do her business, and if we hadn’t been hyper-vigilant, we might have had a litter of beagle/Lab puppies needing homes.

Pets who are otherwise happy to be indoors will go to amazing lengths to escape to satisfy their natural urges, causing not only unwanted pregnancies but also fights among competing Lotharios. It can cause pets to get hit by cars while carelessly crossing streets and sleepless nights for you and your neighbors, listening to howling or caterwauling.

It is estimated that 25 to 30 percent of animals in shelters are purebreds, which means that on average, two of the eight puppies your dog may parent in a single litter will end up in a shelter and potentially be among the 2.4 million that are euthanized. Is the money you make worth that?

Each of us can save the lives of hundreds, if not thousands, of animals by adopting from a shelter instead of buying from a breeder, pet store or Craigslist and by having our pets spayed or neutered. There will still be more than enough healthy, loving companion animals for all of us and we can continue to celebrate being the parents of our fur babies.

Pets and the People Who Love Them is brought to you by your friends at the Athens Limestone Animal Shelter. To adopt your best friend (cat or dog), please visit us at 1701 U.S. 72 (behind Limestone Veterinary Clinic), visit our Facebook page or call us at 256-771-7889.

— E-mail your questions to me at PetsAndPeople@charter.net; and I’ll check with the experts (veterinarians, animal behaviorists, etc.) and get back to you in a future column.