In communities throughout the United States, animal shelters kill large numbers of dogs and cats every day. In Los Angeles alone, 60,000 animals die annually. In the San Francisco Bay Area, authorities kill one animal every nine minutes. The New York City shelter system euthanized 39,000 animals in 1999. Such deaths could be greatly reduced, if not eliminated, if all animal guardians would simply spay and neuter their animals. This simple procedure can usually be done at low cost upon the adoption of a pet from an animal shelter, or at a clinic once an animal has been brought into one’s home.
Sterilization programs instituted in large and small cities achieve significant reductions in impounded, and euthanized, animals. Since the city of Denver adopted strict spay and neutering laws in 1993, its number of impounded animals has decreased by eighteen percent.
Yet In Defense of Animals (IDA) estimates that 50% of all licensed companion animals are neither spayed or neutered. These un-sterilized animals reproduce at an awesome pace. In six years, one female cat has the capability of giving rise to 420,000 young, and one female dog can produce up to 67,000 puppies.
Some inadvertent breeders take unwanted young to animal shelters. Other animals end up abandoned in streets or fields, where they die in a harsh environment or become feral, barely surviving. Abandoned cats, dogs, and other animals needlessly suffer from hunger, malnutrition, and exposure to the elements.
In the Bay Area, many shelters kill 70% of the animals that they receive. Animal control agencies and humane societies must put these animals to sleep because there are not enough homes available to receive the number of abandoned pets taken in by authorities.
In Defense of Animals actively lobbies city authorities to approve and fund spay and neutering measures, and conducts public educational campaigns on the same issue. IDA urges people to spay or neuter all of their companion animals to help prevent the needless suffering of animals.
IDA also asks people to adopt pets from humane societies and animal shelters. Animals in pet stores often endure unsanitary and inhumane conditions. In turn, pet stores buy animals from breeders who, in addition to contributing to the overpopulation of cats and dogs, are commonly unscrupulous.
Updates
IDA’s spay and neutering campaign has had recent successes of great importance.
- The Rudolph Giuliani administration of New York City has backed legislation requiring all dogs and cats sold in pet stores within the city to be sterilized. Animals adopted and reclaimed from city shelters would also have to be sterilized were this legislation to pass. A similar program instituted in Denver stemmed the loss of animal life significantly.
- The Los Angeles City Council passed this nation’s strongest spay/neuter ordinance. The ordinance, passed March 22, 2000, raises the licensing fee for un-sterilized dogs, increases the fee for cat and dog breeder licenses, and prevents breeders from allowing dogs and cats to have more than one litter. In addition, 250,000 spay/neuter resource directories will be distributed to the citizens of Los Angeles, and two mobile spay and neuter units will patrol the city and enforce the ordinance.
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