Why Spay & Neuter? 

Many people are unaware of the pet overpopulation problem in the United States.  Consider this, there are 286,883 homeless pets from 12,221 adoption groups on Petfinder.com alone (as of 12/24/2008).  If you also contemplate the fact that nearly every county in every state has a need for some sort of an animal control facility to deal with unwanted animals that are not typically represented by such adoption resources, you can begin to imagine the enormity of the problem.

Let's consider a large shelter in the Rock Hill area, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Animal Control.  According to their website (www.charmeck.org), in FY 2008 they euthanized 4,987 dogs and 5,921 cats.  Think about that.  That's 909 animals per month  that were put down because no one adopted or wanted them.  And that's just in one county of one state!  According The Humane Society of the United States, over 3 million dogs and cats are euthanized in this country annually.  That's over 250,000 per month or 8,219 per day nationwide. That is unacceptable and unnecessary!

Spaying and neutering have many benefits.  The most obvious is that you don't have every dog or cat in the vicinity coming to your house every time your female goes into heat.  Conversely, you also won't have to worry about your male scaling a six foot fence to get to a female in heat two blocks over and then coming home all bloody because he got into a dog or cat fight.  That's if he comes home at all.  Did you know that surveys show that nearly 85% of the animals hit by cars are unaltered?

Here is some more information from the American Veterinary Medical Association, see the brochure here!

Note from website volunteer:  Have you ever visited an animal control facility?  I used to go nearly every day on my lunch hour to rescue dogs and cats that were destined to be euthanized.  Many of these were purebred animals such as dobermans, cocker spaniels, boxers, poodles and chihuahuas to name a few.  I rescued hundreds of animals from there over the years and still, the cages are full.  Still, they are euthanized on a daily basis.  If you don't believe the statistics, go see for yourself.  Ask the staff about perfectly healthy puppies and kittens that are destroyed every month.  Look in the eyes of those caged animals and ask yourself why?  It is a sad commentary that we even need rescue groups to begin with.  Put us out of business, spay or neuter your pets!

Okay, you still don't think there's an over population problem in this country?  Here's an excerpt from an e-mail that I received from a SC couple:

All e-mail addresses were deleted to protect the innocent.  This is a common occurence:

"Do you know anyone that would want a Free Black Lab Puppy?   Please let me know if you know of anyone who might be interested! My cousin's friend Scott rescued 6 black lab (mix) puppies out of the middle of the road on Saturday. PLEASE help me find them homes - otherwise, it's Animal Control - which means they only have 5 days. They have bathed them, sprayed them for fleas and wormed them....but they can't keep them. They are currently in a kennel in his basement since he does not have a fence.  He has lost count of the number of rescue groups that he has contacted, only to be turned down due to NO ROOM. Please check with every dog person you know to see if they need a puppy."  (Note:  capitalization & underline added for emphasis.)

Look at those faces, do they deserve to die?  Someone didn't spay or neuter their dogs, and this is the result!  PLEASE, remember the babies!  SPAY or NEUTER your pets!!!