Significance of spaying and neutering cats

Whether you are plan­ning to adopt a cat or you have already wel­comed your fur­ry friend into your home, make sure your new com­pan­ion is spayed or neutered. Removal of a female cat’s ovaries and uterus is spay­ing while remov­ing a male cat’s tes­ti­cles is neu­ter­ing. Both oper­a­tions are con­duct­ed rou­tine­ly by a licenced veterinarian. 

Research says that one unspayed female cat and her off­spring can be respon­si­ble for over two mil­lion new kit­tens over a peri­od of the eight-year lifespan. 

“Spay­ing and neu­ter­ing is one of the great­est gifts you can pro­vide your pet and your fam­i­ly. When cats are not spayed or neutered, a large num­ber end up on the streets home­less each year. A few lucky ones are adopt­ed, and the rest die from trau­ma, expo­sure, star­va­tion, or dis­ease. By spay­ing and neu­ter­ing your cat, you do your part to pre­vent this tragedy,” said Les­ley Rogers, Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of New Brunswick SPCA. 

Once a kit­ten is eight-weeks-old, they can be spayed and neutered safe­ly. Cats altered before six months of age have a low­er risk of devel­op­ing behav­ioral or health prob­lems as com­pared to those that under­go these pro­ce­dures lat­er in their life. 

Among the ben­e­fits of spay­ing and neu­ter­ing cats:

Fights cat overpopulation

Spay­ing and neu­ter­ing can help con­trol the cat over­pop­u­la­tion cri­sis and reduce the num­ber of home­less cats.

Bet­ter for your cat’s health

Spay­ing a female cat before the first heat helps pre­vent uter­ine infec­tions, uter­ine can­cers, and breast can­cer. Neu­ter­ing a male cat elim­i­nates the chances of tes­tic­u­lar can­cer and low­ers the risk of prostate prob­lems. Cats that are spayed and neutered live health­i­er, longer, and hap­pi­er lives.

Cats are well-behaved

Spayed and neutered cats are bet­ter behaved. It reduces his/​her urge to roam thus decreas­ing the risk of con­tract­ing dis­eases and get­ting injured. Such cats are more like­ly not to bite or dis­play aggres­sive behav­iour. These surg­eries can help improve your cat’s mood and also relieve stress and leave you with a con­tent pet. 

Spay­ing and neu­ter­ing are cost-effective

When your fur­ry friend is not spayed and neutered, the long-term cost you could incur can be exces­sive. Treat­ment of can­cer for the repro­duc­tive sys­tem is quite cost­ly and car­ing for a new lit­ter of kit­tens can be expensive.

Any sur­gi­cal pro­ce­dure car­ries risk. How­ev­er, the over­all ben­e­fits of spay and neu­ter­ing out­weigh the risk fac­tors. Con­tact your local shel­ter to know about low-cost spay and neu­ter­ing at https://​nbsp​ca​.ca/​f​i​n​d​-​y​o​u​r​-​l​o​c​a​l​-​s​h​elter

About New Brunswick SPCA

Found­ed in 1881, New Brunswick SPCA (NBSC­PA) is the only province-wide orga­ni­za­tion man­dat­ed to enforce ani­mal pro­tec­tion laws. A ded­i­cat­ed team of 15 Ani­mal Pro­tec­tion Offi­cers is vest­ed with the author­i­ty under the SPCA Act of New Brunswick to inves­ti­gate and, if nec­es­sary, lay charges, seize ani­mals, or issue orders to per­sons sus­pect­ed of abuse and cru­el­ty to animals. 

The NBSP­CA is a reg­is­tered char­i­ty that exists to pro­vide province-wide lead­er­ship in the humane treat­ment of ani­mals. We enforce rel­e­vant leg­is­la­tion, ensure shel­ter for neglect­ed or abused domes­ti­cat­ed ani­mals and agri­cul­tur­al ani­mals, and pro­vide pub­lic edu­ca­tion and advo­ca­cy to empow­er New Brunswick­ers to help ani­mals live long and healthy lives. 

To learn more vis­it nbsp​ca​.ca