Tuesday February 24th 2015 was World Spay Day
Thousands of unwanted kittens, cats, puppies and dogs that end up on our streets, in shelters and rescue facilities, with simply not enough people to take them home, are killed every year. No-kill facilities are placed under extreme pressure and become unable to accept new animals. We can help to save lives by preventing unwanted litters through desexing our pets.
Unplanned and unwanted pregnancies can be hard on pets, especially if they’re very young themselves, and they place enormous emotional and financial strain for their owners. Did you know that an unspayed female cat can have up to 29 litters over 10 years, and one male cat can sire 2500 kittens in a single year? The cost of desexing a pet is a fraction of the cost of taking care of these unexpected lives.
Desexing also has important medical and behavioural benefits for your pet. It helps reduce roaming and fighting behaviours and eliminates or reduces the risk of a number of cancers and life-threatening conditions.
Desexing your pet will not change their personality, there is no benefit to your pet to have a litter before being desexed, and desexed animals generally live longer and healthier lives.
We recommend cats and dogs be desexed at around 4-6 months of age, prior to their first ‘heat’, but they can be desexed earlier or later, depending on the individual animal.