Saving lives, one snip at a time

Quick - guess how many animals are euthanized each year in the United States.

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2.7 million. Yes, each year nearly 3 million cats and dogs lose their lives because of pet overpopulation. For perspective, that's the population of Chicago. It's twice that of San Diego.

Dead.

Each. Year.

Here's an easy one - what is the single most effective way to reduce that number?

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If you said "spaying and neutering your pets" you get a cookie!

Seems obvious, right? Keep animals from having babies and there will be fewer animals. But because people are people, there are those who refuse to acknowledge the numbers and insist on keeping their animals intact. Because reasons.

About 3.4 million cats and 3.9 million dogs enter shelters each year. Only 10% of these animals have been spayed or neutered. It is estimated that there are up to 70 million stray cats in this country. Each fertile female can produce one or two litters of four to six kittens each year. Each. Year. So you can see how the population can quickly explode.

If your pets already are spayed or neutered, congrats! Go ahead and grab another cookie. I'll wait.

If they aren't, take another look at those numbers and really examine *why* you have chosen to keep your animals intact. There are definitely valid reasons to do so - I'm not going to argue with that. It's up to you to decide where your reasons fall.

Money is sometimes an issue. I get that. Luckily there are low-cost spay and neuter programs all over the country. If you can't find one near you, talk to your local SPCA. Sometimes animal shelters will offer public veterinarian services on a sliding fee scale.

Besides getting your own pets snipped, another great way to fight cat overpopulation is to support humane trap-neuter-return programs in your community.

Trap-Neuter-Return is the humane and effective approach for stray and feral cats. Now in practice for decades in the US after being proven in Europe, scientific studies show that Trap-Neuter-Return improves the lives of feral cats, improves their relationships with the people who live near them, and decreases the size of colonies over time.

-alleycat.org

And, as always, microchip your pets and keep their info up to date. That way if your critter *does* get loose and is picked up, you're the first person the shelter will call.

Okay, if you managed to get through this, go ahead and take one more cookie for the road.


population from wikipedia - all other stats from the ASPCA