Rant: Get your pets fixed!

[ichy]

Let me start this off by saying I'm not a huge bleeding heart when it comes to animals, but I HATE irresponsible idiots who don't get their pets spayed or neutered. I had a cat start hanging around my house this weekend who was clearly domesticated, not feral, but had no name tag, looked malnourished and had not been spayed. My guess is that some jackass had her for a while but then tossed her out when she became inconvenient. If you're going to get a pet then take the responsibility seriously, and if you won't get a cat fixed then it's clear that you don't give a damn.

Re: the cat in question, I ended up getting cat food and fed her so that at least she's no longer starving. I asked around to see if anyone I knew was interested in adopting her, sadly it looks like no takers. If she shows up again I'm planning on taking her to a local no-kill shelter that I found out about. They claim they have a 97% adoption rate, and this cat was super friendly and appeared healthy apart from being really skinny so I imagine she'll be relatively easy to place in a decent home. Now if only people who didn't get their pets fixed could all be punched in the face.

 

[kami333]

I don't really have too much of a problem with not spaying as long as they are kept inside. People who let their cats roam outside drive me nuts though (unless you live in a very rural area).

 

[Soundmanred]

I agree 100%!
I saw a guy walking his Shih Tzu the other day and the thing looked like it had a broken leg or something. It was limping while it walked, it was pathetic!
I yelled at him "get that bitch fixed!" and he just looked at me like I was crazy.
People these days...

 

[ichy]

I don't really have too much of a problem with not spaying as long as they are kept inside. People who let their cats roam outside drive me nuts though (unless you live in a very rural area).

Why would people NOT get their cats fixed? It prevents lots of health problems in addition to pregnancy and keeps them saner. There are too many unwanted animals out there, people should spay & neuter their pets.

 

[JulesMaximus]

I don't really have too much of a problem with not spaying as long as they are kept inside. People who let their cats roam outside drive me nuts though (unless you live in a very rural area).

Can't be helped in my case. I'd prefer she stay inside but she will manage to get out no matter what, especially with kids going in and out of the house, one of them will leave a door open and she'll get out. She is kind of a neighborhood cat and everyone on our street knows who she belongs to. She is spayed though. We tried keeping a collar with a tag on her but after she lost 2 of them I just said fuck it and let her roam collarless. I had a cat almost hang herself by getting her collar caught on something once too so there are pros and cons to putting a collar on a cat.

All my pets have been spayed or neutered.

 

[BoomerD]

But my pets aren't broken...


(they are however, all neutered.)

 

[DrPizza]

If I lived in the city, I'd get my cats fixed. Then again, if I lived in the city, my cats would be indoor cats - they wouldn't need to get fixed. But, since I live in a rural area, kittens are nice. They replace the cats that get hit by cars, eaten by coyotes, or whatever it is when one of the cats turns up missing.

 

[ichy]

There are plenty of unwanted and feral cats to "replace" the ones you currently have.

 

[CZroe]

Cat is probably so skinny because it has kittens somewhere. Taking it to the no-kill shelter = death knell for teh kittehs.

 

[Atomic Playboy]

I don't really have too much of a problem with not spaying as long as they are kept inside. People who let their cats roam outside drive me nuts though (unless you live in a very rural area).

Having lived in a house with cats going into heat on more than one occasion, I can honestly say that anyone who doesn't spay their cat is insane. The amount of noise generated by a cat in heat who isn't getting laid is mind-boggling. And it's no earthly meow either; this is a howl from the seventh level of hell. Non-stop. For days. Every month. Fuck that. If I'm going to be stuck with a cat, they are at least going to sound like a cat and not some demonic banshee sent from the netherealm to steal my soul.

 

[novasatori]

our dogs weren't spayed, both got mammary cancer
likely wouldn't have happened had they been spayed
the more you know

 

[Rumpltzer]

There are plenty of unwanted and feral cats to "replace" the ones you currently have.

You don't want somone's used cat!

 

[ichy]

Cat is probably so skinny because it has kittens somewhere. Taking it to the no-kill shelter = death knell for teh kittehs.

Damnit. The more I think about it the more I'm tempted to keep her myself (when I was growing up my family had cats most of the time so I'm pretty familiar with them) but if she's got kittens somewhere that's a problem. Someone else who saw her said that her nipples made her look like she was either pregnant or had recently given birth. I figured if she was preggers then getting her spayed would solve that problem (some people might find the idea of kitty abortion to be distasteful, but there are enough unwanted live cats out there that I have no problem at all preventing more kittens from being born) but if she's already given birth...

Anyways, she hasn't come back since Monday morning so I have no idea if I'll see her again. Cats are smart enough to remember a reliable food source, so I'm a little worried she was just recently tossed out of someone's house and doesn't have the smarts to survive outdoors

 

[JTsyo]

Having lived in a house with cats going into heat on more than one occasion, I can honestly say that anyone who doesn't spay their cat is insane. The amount of noise generated by a cat in heat who isn't getting laid is mind-boggling. And it's no earthly meow either; this is a howl from the seventh level of hell. Non-stop. For days. Every month. Fuck that. If I'm going to be stuck with a cat, they are at least going to sound like a cat and not some demonic banshee sent from the netherealm to steal my soul.

You don't service your cat?

bah can't find the thread.

 

[Jeeebus]

I was actually really surprised by this. We take the dane puppy to the dog park. The vet can't spay her until end of this month so I make sure to keep a close eye on her. But the majority of male dogs at the park, mostly bully breeds, are not neutered and the owners seem to have zero concern over their dog mounting another in the park.

Ours hasn't gone into heat yet, so she's generally been left alone, but it's really aggravating to watch.

 

[Oyeve]

I think they should neuter more people and leave the animals be. Just sayin'.

 

[Gooberlx2]

We tried keeping a collar with a tag on her but after she lost 2 of them I just said fuck it and let her roam collarless. I had a cat almost hang herself by getting her collar caught on something once too so there are pros and cons to putting a collar on a cat.

Maybe get her chipped instead. It's not expensive.

 

[kami333]

Why would people NOT get their cats fixed? It prevents lots of health problems in addition to pregnancy and keeps them saner. There are too many unwanted animals out there, people should spay & neuter their pets.

While I don't disagree, if they never go out I don't view it as an issue. Like I said in my previous post I think that cats being let outside on purpose or accidentally is a bigger issue.

Spaying/neutering isn't without it's own set of complications and risks either, sex hormones play a very important role in regulating the body. While traditionally vets have recommended spaying/neutering as early as possible (based on not much more than tradition), there's been a growing body of research that questions if that is the best practice. For example, people say you should spay before the 1st estrous since it decreases the risk of mammary cancer by 10-fold, but they don't say is that it can increase the risk of osteosarcoma by up to 4-fold and hemangiosarcoma by 2-fold, not to mention effects on growth and development. I used to study inflammation and one of the things that was tangential to that was the modulation via sex hormones (especially estrogen).

I didn't get my cats spayed immediately after I got them, I waited until they were a year old (and suffered through them going into heat 2 times) before I had it done.

 

[moshquerade]

 

[alkemyst]

I agree. I feed like 20-30 cats here. 25lbs+ of dry food a week + 10 cans of wet food a day.

Most are not feral...most do create ferals though. I found out legally a pet owner has no recourse against me if I have their pet fixed. I can get it done about $30-40 here.

The problem is I don't have the time to coordinate it right now, in about 2-3 months I should have a bit a free time opened up.

Keep in mind 'no-kill' is usually a misnomer. Many pets are put to sleep on admittance, but prior to making it to the adoption side. If you live where there is brutal winters, you can have more luck, but down here where animals can florish 12 seasons outside many aren't taking in cats or older dogs.

 

[Modelworks]

But, since I live in a rural area, kittens are nice. They replace the cats that get hit by cars, eaten by coyotes, or whatever it is when one of the cats turns up missing.

LOl. I had to laugh at that. Where my brother lives there are about 12 cats in the woods around him. Every time I go to his house he has different cats, he said the same thing, cats just disappear and new kittens keep the population up. He feeds them well too, some of them just disappear after awhile.

 

[alkemyst]

While I don't disagree, if they never go out I don't view it as an issue. Like I said in my previous post I think that cats being let outside on purpose or accidentally is a bigger issue.

Spaying/neutering isn't without it's own set of complications and risks either, sex hormones play a very important role in regulating the body. While traditionally vets have recommended spaying/neutering as early as possible (based on not much more than tradition), there's been a growing body of research that questions if that is the best practice. For example, people say you should spay before the 1st estrous since it decreases the risk of mammary cancer by 10-fold, but they don't say is that it can increase the risk of osteosarcoma by up to 4-fold and hemangiosarcoma by 2-fold, not to mention effects on growth and development. I used to study inflammation and one of the things that was tangential to that was the modulation via sex hormones (especially estrogen).

I didn't get my cats spayed immediately after I got them, I waited until they were a year old (and suffered through them going into heat 2 times) before I had it done.

Your post has very little factual base.

Traditionally 'vets' believed in doing these procedures much later. It's been proven that even as early as prior to 6 months there is not much issue to it. The cons are extremely rare in reality to the pros it generates.

There is pretty much one main study that this dogma stemmed from and a lot of the stats were ambiguous at best any many only extrapolated from human research.

 

[shortylickens]

Which is funny cuz that dude tried to impregnate 200 women a year.

 

[zinfamous]

If I lived in the city, I'd get my cats fixed. Then again, if I lived in the city, my cats would be indoor cats - they wouldn't need to get fixed. But, since I live in a rural area, kittens are nice. They replace the cats that get hit by cars, eaten by coyotes, or whatever it is when one of the cats turns up missing.

not sure if possible...

:hmm:

 

[alkemyst]

I was actually really surprised by this. We take the dane puppy to the dog park. The vet can't spay her until end of this month so I make sure to keep a close eye on her. But the majority of male dogs at the park, mostly bully breeds, are not neutered and the owners seem to have zero concern over their dog mounting another in the park.

Ours hasn't gone into heat yet, so she's generally been left alone, but it's really aggravating to watch.

Dog mounting <> sex usually. Bringing an intact male or female dog into a dog park is asking for trouble though.

When a male dog mounts another male (or female a female) they aren't trying for buttsechs. It's an important part of the pack formation which bringing your dog into a dog park puts it into. By not allowing it to happen, it can create a vicious cycle.

I am not advocating those pets that don't stop the behavior after a few seconds, but when a pet owner goes ballistic at the first sign of it, they are out of their element and should keep Fluffy in their backyard.