Don't delay, neuter today!

I'm late posting this but... I have a reason and I'll explain it in a minute.  The topic of my rant today is:

Spay Day USA-No More Homeless Pets!
Tuesday, February 23rd 2010

Spay Day is an annual campaign of The Humane Society of the United States and 
Humane Society International to inspire people to save animals through spay/neuter.

Did you know that one female cat (and her offspring) can produce 420,000 offspring in just 7 years??  Yep, that's right folks-- 420,000!!!!  Dogs & their offspring can produce 67,000 puppies.  Holy moly, that's a lot of kibble!   Before you question my statistics, let's go into a little lesson about the kitty & puppy version of the "birds & the bees".  One cat/dog can have an average of 5 babies/litter... within 6 months, those "babies" are capable of reproducing.  Do you see where this is going??  Uh-huh,  yep, that's why there are all those vans parked at Wal-Mart on weekends, hawkin' puppies and kitties.  


So... what happens to all those puppies & kitties that don't make it to a loving home?  Well I'm here to tell ya:

-For every person born, 15 dogs (17-million/year) and 45 cats (30-million/year) are born.

-Of the above numbers-- 20-million will end up in shelters and 15-million will be euthanized.

-As many as 25% of dogs entering shelters each year are purebreds.

-Approximately 61% of all dogs are killed in animal shelters.

-Approximately 75% of all cats entering shelters are killed.

-It costs approximately $100 to capture, house, feed, and eventually kill each stray animal -- a cost which you, the taxpayer, eventually pay.

So, if you think it's unimportant to neuter your animals.... think again!  Have you ever seen a starving animal??   It isn't pretty.  Those lovey, cuddly balls of fur become feral and their inner instincts take over.  They hunt, prowl and become aggressive.  They get diseases that spread to domesticated animals and sometimes to people.  They become a nuisance to society by getting into trash or killing livestock (like chickens, etc.).  All this in turn can cost you more money than would have been spent if you'd just paid to have them neutered!

So... I'm sure you are wondering about my point for being late with this post.  Well, wait no further.  

I'm exactly 4 days late with this post.  There are 24 hours/day * 60 minutes/hour * 60 seconds/minute * 4 days= 345,600 seconds.  Statistically speaking, a baby is born every 5 seconds.  So that means there were 69,120 babies born since Tuesday.  If you take my previous information and apply it to this data.... there have been 1,036,800 dogs AND 3,110,400 cats born since Spay Day.  Roughly 58% of those animals will end up in shelters.  

I'm not okay with those numbers and you shouldn't be either!  So, get off your asses and neuter your animals.  Try skipping your morning latte a couple days a week and put those funds towards your community's animal shelter's spay & release program.  If they don't have one... maybe you should peel yourself away from Facebook and start one (this a great link from the ASPCA about forming your own shelter)!