Spaying and neutering your pets is so important, and with World Spay Day being tomorrow, we wanted to share a few of those benefits!
Spaying or neutering your dog or cat will not only improve the health and well being of your beloved family member, but you will also be taking one of the important steps toward reducing the number of unwanted pets in shelters.
· You get a healthier pet. Spayed/neutered pets are less likely to roam away from home, get injured in fights or get lost. They live twice as long and are less likely to develop breast, uterine, ovarian, prostate or testicular cancers. This means lower medical bills.
· You get a happier family member. Spay/neutered pets are freed from the constant need to roam and seek out mates. Their personalities do not change. They are calmer because they are more focused on being a loving member of their caregiver family. And with adequate daily exercise and a reasonable diet, they don’t get fat.
· Your pet can relax and smell the roses. Spayed females and your family avoid the annoyance of serenading would-be suitors – screaming and howling throughout the day and into the night. Altered animals are less territorial, less likely to fight and less likely to bite. Walking your pet becomes a lot safer.
· Your pet and your house will be cleaner. Spayed females will not have heat cycles that soil your rugs and furniture. And neutered males are less likely to mark furniture and rugs with urine. This means less special cleaning bills.
· Spaying or neutering your pet is a good investment. It will cost you more to care for one litter of puppies or kittens created by your family pet. Even a responsible breeder rarely breaks even or makes money by selling dogs or cats. And once you multiply the increased food, basic supplies, veterinarian and advertising costs to find homes for the animals, the cost of altering your pet will look like a very smart investment.
· Spaying and neutering helps fight pet overpopulation. The high numbers of pets are the result of unplanned litters that could have been prevented by spaying or neutering.
In honor of World Spay Day, Seattle Humane held our own Feline Fix Day on February 18th where our Veterinarian Team was able to perform 52 spays and 84 neuters on felines. And although our spay day is over for this month, there are many other shelters and veterinarians who are participating in World Spay Day. To learn more information about which veterinarians and shelters are participating, click here.
