Don’t compromise, sterilise

World Spay Day was on Tuesday, February 24 and highlighted the lifesaving power of sterilisation and the need for affordable services in underprivileged communities.

SPCAs around South Africa are bursting at the seams with discarded healthy dogs and cats of all ages that wait at death’s door, because of the surplus of puppy and kitten litters.

Using the slogan, “Don’t compromise, sterilise”, the SPCA hopes to raise awareness that more than 10 000 healthy, homeless pets in SA face euthanasia monthly. This number can be dramatically decreased by sterilisation.

“Between 15 and 20 puppies are handed over to the Ballito SPCA every month and of these, they probably only get a home for a handful,” said Megs Tweedie, Durban and Coast SPCA marketing manager.

In some cases the puppies and kittens get sick and have to be put to sleep before getting a chance to be homed.

“The Durban and Coast SPCA strongly advocates sterilisation of pets as it urgently needs to be recognised that the world is overpopulated with dogs and cats,” she said.

It is well known that there are too many humans in the world and that the overpopulation problem is rapidly expanding.

Consider this, six puppies or kittens are born for every human baby, which means that a family with three children would have to care for 18 pets.

“One female and her offspring can produce 67 000 dogs in just six years and only a quarter of all animals find permanent loving homes, the rest are euthanased.”

Not only does sterilising your pet save lives, it is also healthier for your pet, as it eliminates the risk of uterine infections, breast and ovarian cancer, venereal tumors and added to that, sterilised animals are less aggressive.

She stated that unsterilised males are vulnerable to prostate disease and perianal hernias.

Furthermore, sexually active males spray or mark their territories, roam and jump fences to get to females on heat and are often aggressive, causing dog fights.

For a female, repeated pregnancies (every six months) can cause unnecessary strain on the mother’s body and reduce her life expectancy.

A sterilised dog can potentially live one to three years longer and a cat three to five years longer.

When taking all of this into account, there is no reason not to sterilise your pet at an early age.