Why Spay/Neuter?

There’s an excess of unwanted puppies/kittens and dogs/cats in shelters across the nation. Companion animal overpopulation is not a problem that can resolve itself.

You cannot adopt your way out!

Long-term spaying and neutering of the population is key!

For every person that is born, 15 dogs and 45 cats are also born. Millions of unwanted puppies and kittens born every year will never find good homes. Every hour nearly 2,500 cats and dogs are born across the United States and our pet population is 100 million.

This problem is too big to be solved by adoption alone.

Please, spay or neuter your pet.

Neutering is the removal of the reproductive organs of an animal to prevent reproduction. It is the most common sterilization method in the United States. Neutering is the general term for both males and females. Spaying specifically refers to surgery for females and castration for surgery for males. “Neutering” and “castration” are sometimes used interchangeably.

Both spaying and neutering in cats and dogs requires general anesthesia. Once the animal is anesthetized by the veterinary technician, the surgery site is prepared by removing the fur and cleaning the area thoroughly with surgical soap and alcohol. Licensed veterinary technicians induce and monitor the animals while under anesthesia. Licensed veterinarians then perform they surgery by removing the uterus (for females) and testicles (for males).

Anesthesia and spaying/neutering surgery is major surgery and carries inherent risks. We do our best to reduce the risks that we can in our clinics so that we can keep your pets safe before, during and after surgery.

The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) supports pediatric spay/neuter in dogs and cats at least 8-16 weeks of age in the effort to reduce the number of unwanted animals. We perform surgery on animals at least 12 weeks old and weighing at least 3 pounds.

• The animal will no longer be able to reproduce and contribute to the overpopulation crisis.
• Spaying and neutering helps dogs and cats live longer, healthier lives.
• Potential reduction in some undesirable behaviors such as urine spraying/marking and some forms of aggression.
• Significant or complete reduction of the animal’s risk of certain diseases such as mammary, prostate or ovarian/testicular cancers. In most cases, the risks are cut even further if the animal is spayed/neutered before its first heat cycle.
• Removal of potential risk of a pyometra (uterine infection), which grows in risk with each heat cycle and year of age of un-spayed animals and can become a life-threatening disease.
• Reduced potential stress upon the animal that the estrus (heat) cycle or a pregnancy has upon the body.

The average cat has two litters of 4 kittens each year. Starting with a male and a female cat this is possible: