Animal Birth Control - Spay & Neuter

For every one companion animal who lives inside with a human family and receives the attention (toys, exercise, companionship, etc.), health care, and emotional support that he or she needs, there are many more who are just barely surviving. Millions of domestic animals never know a kind human hand.
They live hard lives on the street before dying equally hard, agonizing deaths.
Some are picked up by dealers called "bunchers," who then sell them to laboratories and the hideous world of vivisection.
Others suffer all the same with careless owners.
Animals left outdoors unsupervised and uncared for fall victim to cruel people every day, in every state.....

That's why if you care for your companion animals and if you want to reduce animals' suffering, you should spay and/or neuter your pets.



TOP 10 REASONS TO SPAY OR NEUTER YOUR PET


1. Your female dog or cat will live a longer, healthier life.
Spaying—the removal of the ovaries and uterus—is a veterinary procedure performed under general anesthesia that usually requires minimal hospitalization. Spaying a female cat or dog helps prevent pyometra (pus-filled uterus) and breast cancer. Treatment of pyometra requires hospitalization, intravenous fluids and antibiotics. Breast cancer can be fatal in about 50 percent of female dogs and in 90 percent of female cats. Spaying your pet before her first heat offers the best protection from these diseases.

2. There are major health benefits for your male animal companion, too.
Besides preventing unwanted litters, neutering your male dog or cat—the surgical removal of the testicles—prevents testicular cancer, if done before six months of age.

3. Your spayed female won't go into heat.
While cycles can vary greatly, female felines usually go into heat four to five days every three weeks during breeding season. In an effort to advertise for mates, they'll yowl and urinate more frequently—sometimes all over the house. Unspayed female dogs generally have a bloody discharge for about a week, and can conceive for another week or so.

4. Your male dog won't need to roam away from home…
An intact male in search of a mate will do just about anything to get one! That includes digging his way under the fence and making like Houdini to escape from the house. And once he's free to roam, he risks injury in traffic and fights with other males.

5. …and he will be much better behaved to boot!
Neutered cats and dogs focus their attention on their human families. On the other hand, unneutered dogs and cats may mark their territory by spraying strong-smelling urine all over the house. Indoors, male dogs may embarrass you by mounting on furniture and human legs when stimulated. And FYI, a neutered dog protects his home and family just as well as unneutered dog--and many aggression problems can be avoided by early neutering.

6. Spaying or neutering will NOT make your pet fat.
It's no use to use that old excuse! Lack of exercise and overfeeding will cause your pet to pack on the extra pounds—not neutering. Your pet will remain fit and trim as long as you continue to provide exercise and monitor food intake.

7. Spaying or neutering is highly cost-effective.
The cost of your pet's spay or neuter surgery is a lot less than the cost of having and caring for a litter. It also beats the cost of treatment when your unneutered tom escapes and gets into fights with neighborhood strays…or the cost of cleaning the carpet that your unspayed female keeps mistaking for her litter box, or the cost of…well, you get the idea!

8. It's good for the community.
Stray animals pose real problems in many parts of the country. They can prey on wildlife, cause vehicular accidents, damage the local fauna and scare children.

9. Your pet doesn't need to have a litter for your children to witness the miracle of birth.
We've heard this one a lot. But you know what? Letting your pet produce offspring you have no intention of keeping teaches your children irresponsibility. Anyone who has seen an animal euthanized in a shelter for lack of a home knows the truth behind this dangerous myth. There are countless books and videos available to teach your children about birth in a responsible manner.

10. It packs a powerful punch in the fight against pet overpopulation.
Millions of cats and dogs of all ages and breeds are euthanized annually or suffer as strays. These high numbers are the result of unwanted, unplanned litters that could have been prevented by spaying or neutering.

(http://www.aspca.org/site/PageServer?pagename=adopt_spayneuter)


CLICK HERE TO WATCH "IN HOPE":


Wanna know more info about spaying and neutering your companion animals?
If so, please check the following sites:

- PETA's ABC (Animal Birth Control) Campaign
- Pledge to End Animal Homelessness
- Spay & Neuter Info
- Animal Awareness - Companion Animals
- HSUS - Reasons to Spay or Neuter your Pets
- HSUS - Myths and Facts about Spaying and Neutering
- ASPCA - Top 10 Reasons why Spaying and Neutering
- Dog Hause - Spay & Neuter
- Brightlion - In Hope
- Spay USA
- Pet Rescue
- No Kill - Links Resource
- Nobody is going to "rescue" you
- Wake up Call (from Terri's blog)
- Companion Animals (from AV Links Archive)


...so .. REMEMBER:

Don't get a pet unless you are absolutely committed to taking care of it for its entire life.

Don't kid yourself that the pet you dump at a shelter will find a home. Remember, no one is looking for it.

Always spay or neuter your animal companions, and never buy them from a breeder or a pet store.

For every dog purchased from a pet store or a breeder, a dog in an animal shelter is killed.

Puppy Mills & Pet Stores

What is a Puppy Mill?


By the formal definition, a puppy mill is a large-scale breeding operation that produces large numbers of puppies for profit.
What the formal definition overlooks is that most puppy mills are inhumane in their treatment of breeding dogs and puppies.
Many are filthy, and are run by people who have no idea about or concern for the genetic implications of breeding or about what dogs require in terms of basic health care and socialization. Many are simply hellholes in which the breeding dogs are kept in the most deplorable conditions - dogs confined to small wire cages for their entire lives, fed inadequately, kept in unheated buildings, denied basic veterinary care. The breeding dogs are sick, wounded, and malnourished. And their lives are miserable.
When their breeding usefulness is over, they may be killed or dumped.
Large-scale mills do not take their older dogs to shelters, as a rule, because they don’t want to draw attention to themselves.

from: http://www.almosthomerescue.org/puppymill/puppymill.htm



When you buy a puppy from a pet store or puppy mill you support a cruel industry, subjecting the mommy to more torture, as they will just breed her more.
Every time a puppy is bought from a puppy mill or pet store a shelter puppy dies.
Please consider these facts On Puppy Mills:

1- Dogs are bred & rebred every time they come into heat.
Female dogs are bred as soon as they can bred and twice a year thereafter until their bodies wear out and they die at about four or five years old or are destroyed.
2- They live outside most of the time in cages with wire bottoms where they get caught and tear they legs or worse.
3- Sometimes these are stacked where the feces & urine goes down into the cages below.
4- Outside in hot or cold temperatures. Rain, snow, burning sun... it doesn't matter.
They are not protected.
5- Many times there are several in one cage crowded and crapped The filth is enough to make them sick and there is no vetinerary care for those who are or are injured.
6- They are never left out of their cages - never loved or handled. They never know love or human companionship. The conditions in the mills are horrible and terrifying.
Many dogs eventually lose their minds. Their eyes glaze over and they withdraw.
Frequently they develop repetitive behaviors like licking, biting their fur and going round and round in circles. The dogs never get out of the their cages. . They never run in the grass.
Dogs are often trapped in cages with aggressive dogs and have no way to escape.
7- Babies are born with defects from the abuse and emotional problems.
8- They are inter bred which can lead to more defects.
9- They are feed only enough to keep them alive. Most of the time the food bowls are empty and no water. Dogs suffer malnutrition so severe that their hair falls out.
10- Some places ram pipes down their throats to keep them from barking, causing the rupture of their vocal cords.
11- Puppies are taken from the mothers long before it is time. They are shipped in trucks sometimes across states overcrowded and not taken care of.
12- Brokers take them to pet stores to sell. They have not been checked for defects or any diseases.
13- When a puppymill puppy is bought - the owner can end up paying thousands of dollars because of the conditions they were bred and transported in.
14- A lot don't even make it. They die before they ever get to the pet stores.
15- If they are deformed and not good for more breeding they are killed in inhumane ways.
16- They are never socialized. They never get out of they cages.
17- Many of these puppies are born with genetic conditions of the heart and lungs, seizures which sometimes don't show up for years.
18- Many of them have parvo, worms, mange, and various other disorders. The combination of poor food, poor conditions and no veterinary care causes their teeth to rot at early ages. Often the dogs have gum disease and their jaws rot.
19- Even if they come with registration papers - it does not mean they came from good breeding conditions.
20- The AKC receives revenue from the millers for these registrations. When the parents are no longer useful to the millers they are disposed of- (shot- beat or what ever methods they want to use.)

Remember this for every puppy sold at a pet shop - A shelter puppy dies.


What You Can Do

If you have any compassion at all for the animals bred and raised under these miserable conditions, stay out of pet stores. Each puppy purchased from a pet store,
a back yard breeder, via the Internet, in newspaper ads, or at the mill itself, serves an industry with no conscience. Thousands of unwanted animals of all ages and breeds are euthanized at shelters every day. Adopt and spay or neuter a shelter animal or rescued companion animal to help break the cycle of suffering, misery, and death.
In this way, you will do your part to help end the plight of unseen thousands housed in puppy mills throughout the world.

from: http://www.idausa.org/campaigns/puppy/puppymills.html


- 10 Ways You Can Help Fight Puppy Mills

- Sign the 'Stop Puppy Mills Pledge'


Find out more on Puppy Mills & How to Stop it:

- Stop Puppy Mills
- Prisoners of Greed
- HSUS - Get the Facts on Puppy Mills
- Last Chance for Animals
- CAPS - Companion Animal Protection Society
- Puppy Mill Rescue
- ASPCA on Puppy Mills
- Learn about Puppy Mills
- PETA - Puppy Mills facts
- Puppy Mill Awareness Day
- United Against Puppy Mills
- IDA USA - The Horror of Puppy Mills
- IDA USA - Puppy Mills Facts
- Geocities on Puppy Mills
- Puppy Mill Protest
- MySpace - Don't Shop, Adopt!
- MySpace - Ban Puppy Mills
- MySpace - No Puppy Mills