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The Story of Princess and Max
With her sleek coat, wide-eyed stare and "Like I care" attitude, your precious Princess really does behave like royalty, but put off having her spayed and every six months, she'll transform into a feline floozy, caterwauling and sending "come-hither" pheromones to every tomcat within miles. Her bizarre body contortions will have you wondering if she's part pretzel and her yowls might shatter the stemware as well as the silence. Besotted boy cats, helpless to resist, will camp outside her quarters and yours, until her "heat" subsides.
Tomcats make boys look like angels. Keep your unneutered Max indoors and he'll
turn into a sex-crazed madman who "marks" his territory (your La-Z-Boy),
by spraying it with his pungent urine. Put him outside and he'll disappear
for days, only to come home (if you're both lucky) with abscessed ears and
a scratched-up face.
"Fixing" cats is an easy, relatively inexpensive way to ensure better
health and happier, more contented cat companions. Spaying females wipes out
uncomfortable, stressful heat periods and the risk of uterine cancer—and
greatly reduces the risk of mammary cancer. Neutering makes males far less
likely to roam or fight and prevents testicular cancer.
Let Princess have a litter and the potential for disaster becomes mind-boggling.
Consider that in just 1 1/2 years, allowing Princess to breed a litter of
four kittens every six months (which is normal), half of whom are females
who survive and breed, will result in 36 cats! You won't notice because you've
already passed the offspring on, but the numbers grow out there! If Max is
left "intact," he can help create limitless litters of little ones.
Even if you can place Princess' kittens in really good homes (which is a feat—try
checking back in two years to see how many of those kittens have been passed
around like doughnuts, sent to the shelter, stolen, lost, or hit by cars),
you are part of the problem. That's because every kitten you allow your cat
to produce, takes a place in a home that could have been given to one of the
wonderful kittens and cats already born and sitting on death row in the animal
shelter.
Pet Overpopulation Statistics
An unspayed female cat, her mate and all of their offspring, producing only 2 litters per year, with 2.8 surviving kittens per litter can total:
1 year: 12
2 years: 67
3 years: 376
4 years: 2,107
5 years: 11,801
6 years: 66,088
7 years: 370,092
8 years: 2,072,514
9 years: 11,606,077
An unspayed female dog, her mate and all of their puppies, if none are ever neutered or spayed, add up to:
1 year: 16
2 years: 128
3 years: 512
4 years: 2,048
5 years: 12,288
6 years: 67,000
Don't contribute to the tragedy of homeless cats and dogs.
Australian RSPCA Statistics
The RSPCA receives thousands of animals every year in every State and Territory in Australia. Annual statistics on the numbers of animals received, reclaimed or rehomed are compiled on a national basis by RSPCA Australia. The following statistics cover the 1997 to 1998 financial year and give details on the receipt and placement of animals by each State and Territory RSPCA during that period.In 1997-8 the RSPCA received 160,128 animals from across Australia, including 80,776 dogs and 59,028 cats.As well as the high number of dogs and cats received, in 1997-8 the RSPCA took in 20,324 other animals. These included horses, livestock, birds, native animals, and some more unusual animals such as ferrets, guinea pigs, possums, dingoes and snakes.Only 2.6% of cats and 18.4% of dogs coming into RSPCA care are reclaimed by their owners. In 1997-8, the RSPCA found new homes for 22,629 dogs and 13,364 cats.In addition to those animals received into RSPCA shelters, RSPCA inspectors in the field attend many thousands of animals every year.Cruelty Investigations are up by 8.8%More detailed information is provided in the following tables.
Table 1.
Statistics of animals received nationally by the RSPCA
for the 1997-8 financial year
|
Dogs |
Cats |
|
|
Received |
80,776 (50.44%) |
59,028 (36.9%) |
|
Reclaimed |
14,874 (18.4%) |
1,510 (2.56%) |
|
Rehomed/Sold/Other |
22,629 (28.0%) |
13,364 (22.6%) |
|
Euthanased |
36,037 (44.6%) |
43,375 (73.5%) |
Table 2.
State/Territory Society Statistics for 1997-98
Dogs |
ACT |
NSW |
NT |
QLD |
SA |
TAS |
VIC |
WA |
TOTAL |
| Dogs Received |
2135 |
29311 |
1616 |
21150 |
5909 |
1567 |
18525 |
563 |
80,776 |
|
Reclaimed |
457 |
3858 |
195 |
195 |
2205 |
391 |
5603 |
5603 |
|
| Rehomed |
1067 |
7444 |
597 |
6816 |
941 |
416 |
4980 |
368 |
22629 |
| Transferred |
465 |
465 |
|||||||
| In stock/other |
57 |
6 |
86 |
339 |
350 |
350 |
|||
|
Euthanased |
554 |
12076 |
818 |
12169 |
2212 |
421 |
7592 |
195 |
36037 |
Cats |
ACT |
NSW |
NT |
QLD |
SA |
TAS |
VIC |
WA |
TOTAL |
Cats
Received |
2505 |
17130 |
1130 |
18187 |
5125 |
917 |
12559 |
1475 |
59,028 |
Reclaimed |
123 |
222 |
22 |
189 |
334 |
22 |
598 |
1510 |
|
Rehomed |
1087 |
3325 |
357 |
3641 |
631 |
255 |
3048 |
1020 |
13364 |
Transferred |
|||||||||
In
stock/other |
61 |
7 |
52 |
218 |
180 |
518 |
|||
|
Euthanased |
1234 |
13322 |
744 |
14357 |
4108 |
422 |
8733 |
455 |
43375 |
COMPANION ANIMAL
OVERPOPULATION:
THE SAD STATISTICS
The average number of litters a fertile cat can produce in one year is 3 and
the average number of kittens in a litter is 4–6, so one female cat
and her offspring, can produce on 420,000 cats in 7 years.
The average number of litters a fertile dog can produce in one year is 2 and
the average number of puppies in a litter is 6–10, so one female dog
and her offspring, can produce 67,000 dogs in 6 years.
"No homes for littermates", is one of the top ten reasons people
relinquish their cats and dogs to shelters.
The top reason both cat and dog owners give for not having their pet desexed,
is that they simply have not bothered to do it yet.
20% of cat ownerss think their cat is too young to be desexed and 18% say
they are not able to afford spay/neuter surgery.
21% of dog owners want to breed their dog and 13% think their dog
is too young to be desexed.
An estimated 4 to 6 million cats and dogs are killed in shelters each year
in the United States and we are are not far behind in Australia.
Millions more are abandoned, only to suffer from illness or injury before
dying.
In a study of relinquishment of cats and dogs in 12 U.S. animal shelters,
30% of the surrendered dogs were purebreds.
The same study indicated that 55% of the surrendered dogs and
47% of the surrendered cats were not desexed.
It costs U.S. taxpayers an estimated $2 billion each year to round up,
house, kill and dispose of homeless animals.
Over 56% of dogs and puppies entering shelters are killed, based on reports
from over 1,055 facilities across America.
Over 71% of cats and kittens entering shelters are killed, based on reports
from over 1,055 facilities across America.
