About 9 000 cats and dogs are sterilised by the Animal Anti-Cruelty League (AACL) every year. If half those animals had not been sterilised, and each had had a litter, more than 10 000 kittens and puppies would need new homes.

‘Many of these kittens and puppies will be abandoned to roam the streets and fend for themselves; the lucky ones ending up at animal shelters. The alternative to sterilisation is far worse, with young animals being left to fend for themselves or kittens simply being drowned or given away,’ says Christine Kuch of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (NSPCA).

The SPCA believes sterilising animals is key to fighting the overpopulation of pets. They state that your pet can be spayed or neutered from as young as eight weeks.

The advantages of sterilisation

• Spayed or neutered pets are less likely to display aggressive behaviour or stray from home.
• It reduces male pets’ chances of prostrate problems and of developing testicular cancer later in life.
• If a female pet is sterilised before her first heat or oestrus cycle, her chance of developing mammary-gland cancer is reduced by 99%.
• It removes the risk of even more unwanted and neglected animals.
• It reduces the risk of disease transferral from animal to animal and from animal to human.

Text and image: Home magazine