I strongly support spaying and neutering pets, a basic principle for responsible pet ownership. Also, finding pets among those in shelters is a humane alternative to what they otherwise experienced in their lives, and, in my experience, a great way to fill a hole in one’s heart with a cat or dog. While kittens or puppies are a lot of fun, adult animals are harder to place, yet may be a better match for you if you have little experience with kittens or puppies. Believe me, when you go to a shelter, the animals choose you, so watch for the signs they want you to take them home!
It can be hard in a rural area to convince people to get barn cats for rodent control from a shelter instead of letting their own animals procreate. Some mistakenly think an unfixed (and sometimes unfed) cat is a better mouser. It’s a long battle, with many viewpoints. Escapees and overflow population end up in feral colonies, or end up as part of the food chain.
Around here, farm cats often feed coyotes. Not only are they allowed to reproduce unchecked, they almost never are given a minimum of health care, for example rabies shots.
Trap, neuter and return (TNR), is the best way to deal with feral problems. Check to see if your local animal rescue groups do this. They will help even with barn cats if they do. Thanks for spreading the word about spaying and neutering!
I know people on my lane who capture and spay or neuter feral carts using their own funds. The local shelter encourages spaying or neutering, and gives a rebate on some of the adoption fees if the dog or cat is neutered or spayed.
That’s wonderful that there are people who will do that, with their own personal funds. We have a great life cost spay and neuter clinic in our area, they are always kept busy around here.
A veterinarian in the next town spays and neuters animals for a nominal fee. In town, the fee is standard rate, i.e. not cheap!
Very good, I totally support this too. There are a lot of animals at the shelter in need of a forever home.
Your experience with shelter dogs, nicely documented in http://www.lifeofbenji.com , shows how shelter pups are worth having! The same goes for cats. I’ve had two shelter cats, and my only negative feeling about them is why anyone wanted to get rid of the ones I got. They were loving, fun, sweet cats. Made no sense, though I was grateful I got to have them for as long as they lived.
It’s sad that some people think of animals are products that can be easily discarded. Thanks for raising and posting such an important issue. Shelters are always overflowing with cuties in our area.
There used to be many feral cats around my apartment complex. The animal control officer at the time, a friend said people would rent at the trailer park for a short time, move on, and just abandon cats and dogs. At that time, the shelter was a kill shelter, where the animals were kept a few days then euthanized if not claimed or adopted. My friend quit the job because it tore her heart out to have to kill perfectly healthy and adoptable animals. It’s a no kill shelter now.
That’s sad. We still have kill shelters here. Rescue organizations are helping out as much as they can with volunteers and foster homes to alleviate the pressure in the shelters. We just did a count in the animal therapy organization and it turns out that 60% of the dogs in the program are rescues. A very surprising and promising outcome.
Indeed! That makes Benji part of a good trend!
Spaying and neutering takes pressure off shelters and, I’d think, makes no kill shelters more practical.
Exactly 🙂
All of us who are committed to spay/neuter have to keep up the fight till all shelters can be no kill because there are a manageable umber of homeless animals.
I agree .That’s the best and helps that we finds cats in woods and streets
Though there are many people around the world who help feral cats and dogs by feeding them, even adopting them sometimes, the best solution is to spay and neuter them before they produce more homeless cats and dogs. It’s the more humane solution. I don’t know if animal shelters in your country are no kill shelters (it seems most European countries are ahead of the USA in how they handle homeless animals), but there still are shelters in the USA where animals are euthanized after a few days if no one claims them or they don’t find homes.
In the rural county where I live, I read that if they pick up a cat that is not microchipped it is automatic euthanization. Not all chip readers can pick up the various manufacturers, a grave concern. One emergency clinic swore that the particular cat I had to take in did not have a microchip. When I saw the vet here, the chip read as plain as day on the scanning wand. My animals stay indoors.
That’s good to know, and that’s the first time I’ve heard about that. Yes, mine are indoor kitties, too, and the microchip reader business is just one more reason to stick to that.
Great post, I soooo agree!!
Little by little, I hope the world comes to this conclusion!