So, you’ve heard it’s better for your pet to have a litter before bring spayed or neutered. Or, maybe you want your children to experience the miracle of life close up, so you allow your cat or dog to have just one litter. You don’t understand what all the fuss is about. You know everyone who will take one of your kittens or puppies will give them a good home. All those other irresponsible pet owners are the problem, not you.
The truth is once you allow your pet to reproduce you are the problem. The “one litter” myth was dispelled long ago. According to the American Veterinarian Medical Association (AVMA):
The population of dogs and cats in the United States currently exceeds the capacity of our society to care and provide homes for them as companion animals. As a result, millions do not have homes and are euthanatized annually by animal control agencies, humane organizations, and veterinarians in private practice. Dogs and cats that are not adopted can become victims of trauma, starvation, or disease. The AVMA concludes that dog and cat population control is a primary welfare concern of our society.
Spaying and neutering is the solution. Every dog, cat and rabbit at the Town Lake Animal Center is the result of someone who believed it was important to have “just one litter”, wanted their children to experience the miracle of birth, didn’t realize how expensive it is to properly care for a pet with regular vet visits and sterilization, or in a much smaller group, just didn’t care. Every new pet owner accepts the initial responsibility of caring for the animal, but sometimes things happen. People lose jobs, get pregnant, move, the list of reasons not to continue to accept that responsibility goes on and on.
So, while you allow your pet to have just one litter, you ultimately have no control over the offspring after they leave your possession. It is more likely than not that there are animals at the TLAC that are a direct result of your choice to have “just one litter”. Since there is not enough room for all the animals, the city budget provides a solution: euthanasia. Now, you have not only not accepted responsibility for your pet, the city has appropriated everyone’s tax dollars to pay for your actions. They tell you right on their website:
The shelter takes full responsibility for animals that are brought in. Animals brought in to the shelter may eventually be:
* Reclaimed by their owner (strays are held a minimum of 3 days)
* Adopted to a new family
* Transferred to one of our Partner Organizations, or
* Humanely euthanized
The decisions made about what will happen with a specific animal depend upon the information we have about the animal, the health and behavior of the animal, and the space available at the shelter at that time.
More than 12,000 animals are euthanized every year in Austin. If you are not spaying and/or neutering your pets you are the problem. There will always be professional breeders supplying kittens and puppies to the public. Some are good and some are not. We don’t need to worry about running out of animals, and your contribution to the effort is unwarranted and unnecessary. Now if we could only get those breeders licensed and inspected by the state like every other profession, but that’s another issue.
Now that you understand the consequences of your actions, we hope you will be a part of the solution by spaying and neutering your pets. And, to help you explain the miracle of life to your children, we have a short video you can share:
The Spay Austin Coalition was recently notified of a desperate situation on Santa Rosa street in east Austin by Shadow Cats rescue. Feral cat trappers Julia Hilder (Spay Austin Coalition President) and coalition member Calene Summers (Thundering Paws) answered the call only to find one of the worst situations they could imagine.
What started as a few cats and kittens in a yard soon became the reality of an entire block overrun with wild cats and kittens. One of the neighbors puts food out regularly, the others throw out food scraps for the cats to scavenge. As Julia and Calene began trapping the first few cats they quickly realized there were many more than originally reported. As Julia was trapping one day, a resident pointed to an orange tabby and said, “That’s the mother who started it all”. Her current litter is living in a box on the front porch.
The cats have staked out their territory in individual yards, living in bushes and under cars and homes. Several litters of kittens, in addition to the one on the porch, have already been born and the females without new kittens are pregnant and will give birth any day.
So far more than 20 kittens have been removed from the neighborhood and, had they not been rescued, would have been doomed to a life of misery. One kitten was found limping down the street with a broken femur after being hit by a car. Julia rushed this tiny kitten to Riverside Veterinary Clinic where a pin was placed into her leg. She is indeed one of the lucky ones.
The adults are too wild to be adopted so they are being spayed and neutered, then returned to the neighborhood where they will continue to live, but will no longer contribute to the overpopulation problem. The process of sterilizing feral cats and replacing them where they were found is called Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR). TNR naysayers contend the cost of surgery for these homeless cats is not worthwhile and would be better spent on family pets. However, studies have shown not only does it stop the breeding cycle, the cats have claimed the area as their own thereby preventing new cats from moving in to start the cycle all over again.
Of course, all it takes is two intact cats abandoned in that neighborhood, which is why it’s so important to spay and neuter all pets at an early age. The Spay Austin Coalition began as a concerted effort by a number of animal welfare groups working together to reduce the number of animals killed at the Town Lake Animal Center. After six years, our efforts have started making a difference. We were chosen as the group to assist the director of TLAC in drafting the original guidelines for the citywide TNR efforts that continue today. The ASPCA funded a grant called Mission Orange that provided resources directly to spay/neuter programs in Austin, including specifically for feral cats.
If you are interested in helping the Spay Austin Coalition in our efforts, please consider donating today. If you want your funds to go directly to the Santa Rosa Project, Shadow Cats Rescue has set up a funding page. All of the donations through that portal go directly to the care of the Santa Rosa cats and kittens.
If you want to donate without specifying a project, simply use the Paypal button in the upper right corner of this page. The Spay Austin Coalition is an all volunteer organization with IRS 501(c)(3) status. All donations are tax exempt and go directly to the care of the animals we work with. We have no – zero – paid staff or administration costs.
If you don’t have the funds to donate, please consider fostering or adopting a kitten (or two, or three). To foster or adopt, send an email to president at spayaustin dot com, or check the President box on our contact form. The socialization of these kittens at an early age insures they will be suitable for adoption, where they will live a long and happy life as part of a family. Maybe yours.
The Dallas City Council plans to vote in late June on measures to strengthen its animal control ordinances. Before that happens, though, the council must examine the enforcement options available under state law and then ask: Are we going far enough?
The proposed changes will include mandatory spaying or neutering of most pets. These are necessary long-term steps that will slowly help reduce the tens of thousands of stray dogs and cats roaming our streets. There’s also a proposal to stop owners from leaving their dogs tethered outside. Tethering is widely believed to make dogs more prone to attack.
So far, so good. But the proposed measures still don’t go far enough to hold irresponsible dog owners to a higher legal standard. Of particular concern are measures aimed at dangerous dogs – those with a record of inflicting bodily harm through an unprovoked attack. In both existing city law and the proposed law, the sanctions are dog-specific, not owner-specific.
If, for example, an irresponsible owner permits his dog to run free, and it mauls a child on the sidewalk, the city invokes a series of steps to help ensure that the dog won’t attack again, including forcing the owner to build a fence and purchase a $100,000 insurance policy. To escape those expenses, all the owner has to do is get rid of the dog.
Neither existing law nor the proposed changes do anything to ensure that the owner won’t simply purchase a new dog and continue the same irresponsible behavior that led to the original attack.
The new law must include stiff sanctions that stick to the owner, not just the dog. State law permits felony criminal prosecution of irresponsible owners, but the city doesn’t take advantage of it.
City Attorney Tom Perkins found a similar problem in his recent review of the city’s ordinances addressing abandoned or derelict structures. He determined that city ordinances were too lenient, considering the enforcement latitude allowed by state law. So, at his recommendation, the City Council beefed up local law to take the fullest possible advantage of what state law allows.
Why not do the same for the animal-control code?
And don’t forget enforcement. Get-tough laws are great, but if the city fails to enforce them because funds and staffing are insufficient, those laws become worse than meaningless.
There’s no question tougher laws are needed, as evidenced by the fact that residents in neighborhoods like Preston Hollow reportedly now walk the streets with guns after a recent dog attack. There’s got to be a better way, and it begins with laws that sanction irresponsible owners, not just their pets.
Key changes
in the law
•Mandatory spay/neuter for household pets
•Limit on the number of dogs and cats per household
•Ban on tethering unattended dogs
•Streamlined process to go after vicious dogs
What’s still needed
•Sanctions that apply specifically to irresponsible owners
If you are a dog or cat lover here’s a statistic that will make you sick. 12,000 adoptable animals were killed at the city shelter last year because there aren’t enough good homes and way too many puppies and kittens being born.
Public awareness of the crisis is getting more attention and old fashioned attitudes are changing but we still have a lot of work to cut the kill rate and make Austin a better place for our animal friends. Pet overpopulation is a community wide problem and it is the community that must work together to stop the killing. The answer is to spay and neuter your pet and Austin has excellent and inexpensive resources to get the job done.
Where can you get low cost spays and neuters? Emancipet operates a stationary clinic at 7201 Levander Loop and a mobile clinic at various locations in East Austin, 512-587-SPAY emancipet.org and Animal Trustees of Austin performs surgeries at 5129 Cameron Rd 512-450-0111 animaltrustees.org (pictured right).
What about all those feral (wild) cats? Feral cats in Austin are a big contributing factor to pet overpopulation and the large numbers of cats killed at the Town Lake Animal Center. But Austin is taking a humane and proactive approach to the problem and instead of trapping and killing these cats, they are being spayed and neutered and allowed to return and be fed by residents who were feeding them in the first place. Trap, Neuter and Return is what it is called and the Austin Humane Society is playing a key role in this life saving venture. Twice a week AHS holds clinics to spay and neuter large numbers of feral cats at no cost to the public. Austin Humane Society is located on 124 W. Anderson Ln, Lstivers@austinhumanesociety.org.
As we approach puppy/kitten season in Austin, which lasts from now through the summer and into the warm months of fall, please spread the word to neighbors, co-workers and relatives. Help them to be part of the solution to pet overpopulation by getting pets spayed or neutered.
In Mooresville, Ind., Tonja Robertson works the crowd at the bustling little farmers market every Saturday. She sets up near the honeybee-farm booth, arranges the muffins she baked at 4:30 that morning, and speaks of her passion — the millions of unwanted puppies and kittens born every year and the simple way to end that. On a good day, six or seven people accept vouchers she offers for low-cost pet sterilizations.
Five hundred miles away, in Asheville, N.C., more than 100 dog- and cat-toting pet owners arrive at the Humane Alliance or its pickup sites daily, drawn by the well-publicized promise of cheap, quick sterilizations.
Similar scenes are being repeated across the country — from urban centers to farmlands to reservations — through huge initiatives and tiny grassroots efforts.
While California is in the spotlight for controversial mandatory-pet-sterilization legislation under discussion there, the rest of the country is hearing an insistent message that, although far short of compulsory sterilization, encourages and facilitates spay/neuters.
“We now know we can’t adopt our way out of the pet overpopulation problem. We’ve got to halt the problem at the source,” says Peter Marsh of Concord, N.H. His state allocates $2 of every mandated dog license to help low-income residents sterilize their pets. Since its passage, 70% fewer dogs and cats are being euthanized annually.
The simple math, experts say, is that far more animals are being born every year than can be placed.
More pets than potential homes for them
Despite successful campaigns to persuade prospective owners to adopt shelter pets, about 7 million dogs and cats are euthanized in shelters every year, and there’s no evidence that adoptions will increase enough to close the gap, experts say.
The massive number of animals euthanized in shelters “was the secret that no one wanted to talk about or hear about,” even as recently as the 1990s, when 17 million animals were being destroyed annually, says Aimee St. Arnaud of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA). Now those numbers are being broadcast and push to spay or neuter is accelerating:
•Pet overpopulation and sterilization conferences are drawing thousands. In September, the Southern Regional Spay/Neuter Leadership Conference takes place in Memphis; in October the Fix It Forum will be held in Oak Brook, Ill.
•Big companies are contributing millions. In 2006, PetSmart Charities gave $4.2 million to sterilization initiatives, nearly triple the amount granted in 2002. And the foundation just announced a $6 million, five-year program called Spay Texas, which it believes will sterilize 1 million pets.
•Groups large and small are providing or subsidizing low-cost or free sterilizations, often using mobile units.The North Shore Animal League America is making it simple for anyone anywhere to locate discounted programs. Its SPAY/USA (800-248-7729 or www.spayusa.org) service constantly updates a list and answers 2,800 queries a month.
•The Humane Alliance in Asheville, which performs 22,000 sterilizations annually and is regarded as the gold standard for low-cost, high-volume spay/neuters, has received grants from the ASPCA and PetSmart Charities to help groups in several states, including California, Illinois, Georgia, Tennessee and Ohio, establish similar programs.
“The euthanasia rate in the Asheville area has been reduced by 72%,” says St. Arnaud. Providing money to extend that model made sense, she says.
In an unprecedented move, several groups, including ASPCA, Humane Society of the United States, PetSmart Charities, International Fund for Animal Welfare and United Animal Nations, collaborated to fund a massive operation on the Gulf Coast, where 80% of the animals that wound up in shelters after Hurricane Katrina weren’t neutered. The money supports voucher-subsidy programs plus clinics and mobile units capable of sterilizing nearly 40,000 animals a year. Some 22,000 animals have already been reached, says HSUS’ Vicki Stevens.
‘Many people don’t appreciate the necessity’
Meanwhile, grassroots groups, most of them operating on a shoestring, are making inroads.
•Spay-Neuter Indianapolis Pets (SNIP), the effort headed by Robertson, is battling mind-set and logistical issues. “Many people don’t appreciate the necessity of sterilization,” she says, so much of the task is determining and presenting the most convincing argument for that person. Subsidized vouchers help, but there’s still the long journey to the vet, so she’s doing fundraising to buy a van. And she’ll do the transport.
•In Colorado Springs, the Hamlett Spay & Neuter Clinic performs about 550 sterilizations a month. Sterilizations are free to those who can prove need; low-cost is available to others.
Wherever they are performed, sterilizations in the future may be faster, cheaper and non-surgical — probably a shot or an implant. The non-profit Alliance for Contraception in Cats & Dogs has been pushing for a non-surgical approach since 2000; it expects to present by year’s end a petition pressing pharmaceutical companies to bring animal contraceptives to market.
Contraceptives are in limited use in Europe and Australia. In the USA, a contraceptive for male dogs could be on the market by 2008, says ACC’s Joyce Briggs. The group hopes to raise $10 million for research and development of promising non-surgical treatments.
“We think this will make a dramatic difference in the pet overpopulation problem worldwide, ” she says.
The single most important thing that we can do to save animals from all the suffering and death that their overpopulation causes is to spay and neuter them. Just one unaltered female cat and her offspring can produce an estimated 420,000 cats in only seven years. In six years, a female dog and her offspring can produce 67,000 puppies. So every time we spay or neuter just one animal, we prevent the births of thousands of animals. On the other hand, if we pass by even one unsterilized animal without seeing to it that she or he is spayed or neutered, we are turning our backs on thousands of unwanted animals and more than likely condemning them to hideous fates.
If you haven’t yet sterilized the animals with whom you share your home, do so today. If you think that you can offer your home to an animal and provide for his or her needs for 10 to 15 years, please go to your shelter now because there are many there who are waiting for you. Adopt two compatible animals so that they can keep each other company.
Make a pledge right now to take personal responsibility for neutering or spaying every unsterilized animal you encounter. Is there an unaltered cat hanging around the back porch? Does your neighbor have a female dog who keeps going into heat or a male dog who keeps jumping the fence to chase after females in heat? Is your friend or family member giving away a litter of kittens? Help make sure that all unwanted animals are taken to open-admission shelters and then help get animals who are staying in homes spayed or neutered. Don’t let the surgery be put off—be persistent! If money is preventing it, offer to pay for the procedure (you’ll be saving animals’ lives). If transportation to the vet is the obstacle—become a dog or cat taxi driver for a day! If the guardians still aren’t convinced that spaying and neutering are vital to saving animals’ lives, order our free literature on the subject to help them understand.
If possible, spay your whole street! Offer to have your neighbors’ dogs and cats sterilized at a clinic or a local low-cost spay/neuter program (call 1-800-248-SPAY for details).
Work on the front lines of the overpopulation crisis by teaming up with your local animal shelter to save and improve animals’ lives. Make sure that your local shelter requires that animals be spayed or neutered before adoption. If sterilization is not required, work for policy change at the shelter.
Many shelters are in serious need of reform. Citizen involvement is essential if progress is to be made. You can be successful by organizing friends, neighbors, and other concerned individuals to take action.
If your local pound or shelter is using any method other than an intravenous injection of sodium pentobarbital, protest to local authorities and demand the implementation of humane practices. Check state and local laws for prescribed methods of euthanasia and insist that your local shelter comply with these requirements. Euthanasia should always be performed by well-trained, caring staff members, and animals should never be euthanized in view of other animals.
Finally, fight the cruel industries that profit from breeding and selling animals while millions more die because of a lack of homes. People who patronize pet shops or seek out purebreds from breeders are adding to the population overload. Speak up if someone you know intends to breed his or her animal or plans to buy from a pet store or breeder. Get our free literature on pet shops, puppy mills, and spaying and neutering to provide more information. If there’s a pet store in your local mall, urge the mall manager to give it the boot and instead lend that space to an animal shelter to use as an adoption center for homeless animals.
Many people enjoy the companionship of cats and dogs, who were domesticated thousands of years ago.(1) Over time, people have manipulated animal breeding to produce certain physical characteristics, resulting in the different types of cats and dogs we know today. But domestication took these animals out of their natural environment, and their reproduction is no longer regulated by predators or habitat. The result is an overpopulation crisis that can only be controlled through widespread spaying and neutering.
The Tragic Cycle
One unspayed dog and her offspring can lead to 67,000 dogs in six years. One unspayed cat and her offspring can produce 420,000 cats in seven years.(2) Approximately 70,000 puppies and kittens are born in the United States each day.(3) Some of them are born to breeders who sell animals for a profit, some are born to people who want their cat or dog to have the “experience” of having a litter or who want their children to witness the “miracle of life,” and some result from allowing fertile animals to roam freely and mate.
Whatever the reason, the number of cats and dogs far exceeds the number of loving homes available. Unwanted animals are often treated as a nuisance; incidents of kitten drownings and dog abandonments are common. Many people drop animals off in rural areas, thinking that someone will take them in or that they can fend for themselves. But the tragic fates for these animals include cruel treatment, starvation, disease, freezing, highway death, procurement for research laboratories, and more unregulated breeding. Even if someone can find homes for one litter of kittens or puppies, the overpopulation cycle continues if the animals are allowed to breed. And animals from breeders occupy homes that could have taken in homeless animals, who are destined to be destroyed.
Animal control agencies and shelters receive approximately 6 to 8 million animals annually. Those who are not adopted within about a week or two (3 to 4 million of them) are killed either by painless lethal injection or by inhumane methods, such as the use of carbon monoxide or decompression chambers.(4) In many areas where “pound seizure” is permitted, unclaimed animals can be given or sold to laboratories.
An Ounce of Prevention
Spaying and neutering helps stem the tide of overpopulation. It does not affect animals’ energy levels or change their personalities, as some people mistakenly believe. Spaying eliminates the stress and discomfort that females endure during heat periods, eliminates the risk of uterine cancer, and greatly reduces the risk of mammary cancer. Neutering makes males far less likely to roam or fight, prevents testicular cancer, and reduces the risk of prostate cancer.(5) Altered animals are less likely to contract deadly, contagious diseases spread through bodily fluids, such as feline AIDS and leukemia.
Female cats and dogs should be spayed soon after the age of 8 weeks. Males should be neutered at 8 weeks of age, but both spaying and neutering can be done safely through most of adulthood. Some shelters are encouraging earlier spaying and neutering, which can be less stressful for animals.(6) Younger animals also recuperate faster from surgery.(7)
The one-time cost of spaying or neutering is less than the costs involved in raising puppies or kittens (which include food, shots, training, and time) and is far less than the cost that communities must pay toward animal control and euthanasia. Many cities have low-cost spay and neuter clinics to encourage owners to be responsible before they are faced with unwanted animals and before the animals themselves must pay with their lives. Many states now have legislation that mandates spaying and neutering or restricts breeding. For more information, see PETA’s “Model Spay and Neuter Ordinances” list.
What You Can Do
Adopt from shelters—and don’t forget about adult animals, who are often overlooked by people looking for a puppy or a kitten, but who often have the advantage of being housebroken and trained. Urge people who desire the companionship of animals to adopt from animal shelters. Work within your community to legislate mandatory spaying and neutering. And if you know someone who is hesitant to have an animal spayed or neutered, explain to him or her the benefits of the procedure and why it is so important.
References
1) Karen E. Lang, “From Wolf to Woof,” National Geographic 2001.
2) The Humane Society of the United States, “HSUS Pet Overpopulation Estimates,” 2004.
3) Bob Shaw, “PETCO Tests Rabbit Adoption; Cooperation With Local Rights Group Could Be Pet Model Nationally,” Saint Paul Pioneer Press 4 Jul. 2004.
4) The Humane Society of the United States.
5) Daniel Crain, “Spay Day Calls Attention to ‘Kindest Cut’ Surgery for Pets,” Alameda Times-Star 12 Feb. 2005.
6) Theresa A. Fuess, “Early Spay/Neuter: An Overview,” Illinois Veterinary Bulletin 6 (1998).
7) Fuess.
As a nation, we claim to love cats and dogs. Millions of households have pets, and billions of dollars are spent yearly on pet supplies and food. But as a nation, we should take a hard, sobering look at a different annual statistic: the millions of dogs and cats given up to shelters or left to die on the streets. And the numbers tell only half the story.
Every cat or dog who dies as a result of pet overpopulation—whether humanely in a shelter or by injury, disease, or neglect—is an animal who, more often than not, would have made a wonderful companion, if given the chance. Tremendous as the problem of pet overpopulation is, it can be solved if each of us takes just one small step, starting with not allowing our animals to breed. Here’s information about this crisis and why spaying and neutering is the first step to a solution.
The solution can be simply stated. Its implementation, however, requires sweeping efforts from a variety of organizations and people, including you.
The solution is this: Only by implementing widespread sterilization programs, only by spaying and neutering all companion animals, will we get a handle on pet overpopulation. Consider the fact that in six short years, one female dog and her offspring can give birth to hundreds of puppies. And, in seven years, one cat and her young can produce hundreds of kittens.
Given these high reproductive rates, it stands to reason that, in only a few years, carefully planned and implemented sterilization programs could produce a dramatic reduction in the number of unwanted companion animals born. In fact, in those towns and cities that have implemented such programs, we’ve already seen the number of companion animals who had to be euthanized decline by 30 to 60 percent—even in those communities where human populations have been steadily increasing.
But these programs don’t create themselves. They require the planning and coordination of many people. Successful pet population control programs range from subsidized sterilization clinics to cooperative efforts involving local veterinarians to mass media educational campaigns. Only through the continued nationwide establishment of such programs will we bring an end to the tragedy of pet overpopulation.
Community-Based Solutions
Legislation can have the most direct impact simply by requiring that every pet adopted from a municipal or county shelter be sterilized within a certain period of time. Similarly, differential-licensing laws—laws that substantially increase license fees for pets who have not been spayed or neutered—give owners an incentive to sterilize their pets.
Education, too, is an essential part of solving this problem. Unless people know the facts about pet overpopulation and sterilization, they are virtually helpless to do anything about the problem.
Reduced spay/neuter fees play an important role as well. Subsidized spay/neuter clinics and programs in some communities have already helped bring down the cost of sterilization. In areas where veterinarians have agreed to reduce their spay/neuter fees, we’ve seen a significant decline in the number of animals euthanized.
Finally, pet owners can do their part by having their companion animals spayed or neutered. This is the single most important step you can take. Have your pet sterilized so that he or she does not contribute to the pet overpopulation problem, and adopt your next pet from an animal shelter.
Spay or neuter surgery carries a one-time cost that is relatively small when one considers its benefits. It’s a small price to pay for the health of your pet and the prevention of more unwanted animals. The Humane Society of the United States lists nine myths and facts about spaying or neutering your pet.
MYTH:My pet will get fat and lazy.
FACT: The truth is that most pets get fat and lazy because their owners feed them too much and don’t give them enough exercise.
MYTH:It’s better to have one litter first.
FACT: Medical evidence indicates just the opposite. In fact, the evidence shows that females spayed before their first heat are typically healthier. Many veterinarians now sterilize dogs and cats as young as eight weeks of age. Check with your veterinarian about the appropriate time for these procedures.
MYTH:My children should experience the miracle of birth.
FACT: Even if children are able to see a pet give birth—which is unlikely, since it usually occurs at night and in seclusion—the lesson they will really learn is that animals can be created and discarded as it suits adults. Instead, it should be explained to children that the real miracle is life and that preventing the birth of some pets can save the lives of others.
MYTH:But my pet is a purebred.
FACT: So is at least one out of every four pets brought to animal shelters around the country. There are just too many dogs and cats—mixed breed and purebred.
MYTH:I want my dog to be protective.
FACT: Spaying or neutering does not affect a dog’s natural instinct to protect home and family. A dog’s personality is formed more by genetics and environment than by sex hormones.
MYTH:I don’t want my male dog or cat to feel like less of a male.
FACT: Pets don’t have any concept of sexual identity or ego. Neutering will not change a pet’s basic personality. He doesn’t suffer any kind of emotional reaction or identity crisis when neutered.
MYTH:But my dog (or cat) is so special, I want a puppy (or kitten) just like her.
FACT: A dog or cat may be a great pet, but that doesn’t mean her offspring will be a carbon copy. Professional animal breeders who follow generations of bloodlines can’t guarantee they will get just what they want out of a particular litter. A pet owner’s chances are even slimmer. In fact, an entire litter of puppies or kittens might receive all of a pet’s (and her mate’s) worst characteristics.
MYTH:It’s too expensive to have my pet spayed or neutered.
FACT: The cost of spaying or neutering depends on the sex, size, and age of the pet, your veterinarian’s fees, and a number of other variables. But whatever the actual price, spay or neuter surgery is a one-time cost—a relatively small cost when compared to all the benefits. It’s a bargain compared to the cost of having a litter and ensuring the health of the mother and litter; two months of pregnancy and another two months until the litter is weaned can add up to significant veterinary bills and food costs if complications develop. Most importantly, it’s a very small price to pay for the health of your pet and the prevention of the births of more unwanted pets.
MYTH:I’ll find good homes for all the puppies and kittens.
FACT: You may find homes for all of your pet’s litter. But each home you find means one less home for the dogs and cats in shelters who need good homes. Also, in less than one year’s time, each of your pet’s offspring may have his or her own litter, adding even more animals to the population. The problem of pet overpopulation is created and perpetuated one litter at a time.
Why has Austin taken so long to get nowhere in passing a spay/neuter ordinance?
Though many major Texas cities have either passed or will soon adopt a pet-sterilization measure, an ordinance has yet to come before the Austin City Council, despite years of committee work and community activism. One vague theory for the apparent stalemate is that some officials consider a spay/neuter ordinance to be “political suicide,” given the arguments against mandatory sterilization from influential groups such as the American Kennel Club and Responsible Pet Owners Alliance. To be sure, the city remains deeply divided on how to reduce euthanasia rates for dogs and cats, with one camp advocating compulsory prevention, like a spay/neuter ordinance, and the other camp trumpeting volunteerism.
The fierce ideological impasse has certainly fostered longstanding contentiousness, as demonstrated recently by some 50 picketers outside a newly opened Petland store in the Southpark Meadows shopping center. Animal-rights activists, who plan to continue staging protests at the store, allege that Petland, a national retailer of purebred puppies, kittens, and other small animals, operates on a “puppy-mill” business model of quantity over quality – a claim the store management strongly denies. “Protesters are welcome to their opinion,” said Daxa Bhakta of the South Austin franchise shop. “We’re doing the right thing by the puppies and all the pets in our store.” In cities across the country, activists have accused Petland of buying animals from puppy mills that have no regard for overbreeding, inbreeding, veterinary care, or living conditions. Bhakta again denied the allegation, saying the store gets its puppies from USDA-licensed breeders who have been “checked out.”
Petland opponents in Austin were surprised to learn that, prior to the store’s grand opening last month, city animal-shelter officials had been quietly entertaining overtures from Petland to operate a cat-adoption program out of the store. Town Lake Animal Center Director Dorinda Pulliam finalized the agreement in early March but waited until March 28 – the day before a planned protest at the store – to announce the deal via e-mail to nonprofit animal groups. The news placed protesters in a quandary: “I question the timing – several people wanted to call off the protest, thinking that Petland … would eventually maybe go with all rescue animals,” said activist Delwin Goss. “We all know that is crap.”
On Feb. 28, partly to appease the uproar over the imminent arrival of Petland, the council passed a “pet trader” ordinance, which took effect March 10. The ordinance mandates a $50 “processing fee” for every unsterilized pet owned by “a person who exchanges for consideration” more than 15 dogs or cats, or both, in a year. The ordinance also requires disclosure of “any known disease, illness, or congenital or hereditary condition,” in an attempt to curb pet traders passing along unhealthy animals to unwitting consumers. City staff billed the pet trader ordinance as a “step in the right direction,” while activists called it a “baby step,” but a good step, nonetheless.
The closest Austin has ever come to getting a spay/neuter ordinance was in 2005, when activists and the Animal Advisory Commission drafted the “Austin Save a Pet” ordinance, emphatically dubbed, “A.S.A.P.” But the draft never made it to the council dais. According to former AAC member Cathy Olive, national dog breeders bombarded council with anti-ordinance e-mails, reportedly complaining that Austin’s ordinance would ruin business and even threatening to boycott dog shows in Austin. But as Olive noted, show dogs would have been exempt. In the end, Olive said, Pulliam “said she wouldn’t support the ordinance. It broke my heart. There has to be a change in administration, or she needs to have an epiphany.” A popular theory for the ordinance’s failure, Olive went on, was that Mayor Pro Tem Betty Dunkerley “talked everybody out of” supporting the ordinance. But current AAC Chair Carol Adams says council members never supported it in the first place.
Pulliam, for her part, said the 2005 ordinance lacked support because it was “poorly worded.” As for her critics in the animal-rights community, Pulliam said she doesn’t wield as much authority as some people may think. “I implement policy,” she said. “I don’t set it.” Pulliam’s current pet projects include working with the Austin Police Department to curb the practice of drug dealers using pit bulls as guard dogs, a program better received than her aim to provide MP3 players to pet owners in high-poverty neighborhoods as incentives to sterilize their pets voluntarily. On the latter, some regard the incentive effort as a somewhat narrow-minded way of blaming pet euthanasia rates on East Austin poverty.
Melanie Sobel, former director of the Williamson Co.Regional Animal Shelter, posits that Austin’s political fear of a spay/neuter ordinance may have grown out of the Texas spirit of “people [wanting] their ‘God-given right’ to do what they want with their property. I always tell people who want to breed their animal or buy one from a pet store, if you’re not part of the solution, then you’re part of the problem.”
So far more than 20 kittens have been removed from the neighborhood and, had they not been rescued, would have been doomed to a life of misery. One kitten was found limping down the street with a broken femur after being hit by a car. Julia rushed this tiny kitten to Riverside Veterinary Clinic where a pin was placed into her leg. She is indeed one of the lucky ones.
Feral cats in Austin are a big contributing factor to pet overpopulation and the large numbers of cats killed at the Town Lake Animal Center. But Austin is taking a humane and proactive approach to the problem and instead of trapping and killing these cats, they are being spayed and neutered and allowed to return and be fed by residents who were feeding them in the first place. Trap, Neuter and Return is what it is called and the Austin Humane Society is playing a key role in this life saving venture. Twice a week AHS holds clinics to spay and neuter large numbers of feral cats at no cost to the public. Austin Humane Society is located on 124 W. Anderson Ln, 