Abstinence Didn’t Work For Her – It Won’t For Your Pet Either

Already a single parent, Kitty came to us moody, feeling fat, and ready to pop out quintuplets. She and her children joined the hundreds of others coming to spcaLA with thousands more on the way. It upsets me when a dog, cat or bunny fret to me that they are surprised by the discovery of an unwanted pregnancy. The only thing left to do was to ask the pets to please sign an abstinence agreement in order to be part of the solution. Alas, they are no more successful than the rest of us in sticking to it.  Please - help me help them.

As long as the number of unwanted pets entering a shelter is more frequent and greater than the number leaving via adoption or reunion with their people -  there will be a pet overpopulation problem. In fact, millions of healthy wonderful pets are euthanized in this country for lack of time and space. It can take a while to find the right family. A while, is a luxury many animals don't have.

Spaying and neutering is neither the panacea nor the ultimate solution to the problem, but it is a necessary component. (Responsible owners, effective animal control services, identification tags and chips, and most important, the will of the communities to work together are needed to address the issue.) Despite mandatory sterilization laws of one sort or another this crucial step toward saving lives is still not happening.

Please spay and neuter, or sponsor the spay/neuter of an animal, because abstinence doesn’t work for your pet either.