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Hi and welcome to the Desexing Month Special! While we love to bring you the happy stories of pets that have great new families, it's not all good news. Did you know that 200,000 pets are killed each year in shelters around Australia? That's over 500 a day... Accidental litters and people carelessly breeding lead to unwanted pets without hope of ever finding a home. But there is a solution. PetRescue genuinely believes that desexing is the key to stopping the killing taking place in shelters each day around Australia. That's why every single pet listed on PetRescue comes desexed. The most responsible source of pets is an adopted pet from PetRescue. Spread the word! Cheers, |
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Voyeur Magazine - Carbon Neutered
Carbon Neutered You may have gone green, but what about your pet? It's time to make Fido and Fifi eco-friendly too. Recycle a pet; adopt from an animal shelter. Check out www.petrescue.com.au for surrendered animals looking for loving new homes around Australia. Neutering your pet also stops unwanted mini mutts and moggies ending up in a shelter. |
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"2... 4... 6... 8... Desex your pets, Don't Wait!" This annual event will see many cats and dogs desexed thereby getting closer to ending pet overpopulation in Australia. If you need financial assistance in getting your pet desexed, or are looking to get a stray or feral cat sterilised, you can find a participating vet by clicking here. |
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The good news is that as well as helping reduce pet overpopulation, desexing has many benefits to you and your pet. Males Desexing reduces territorial aggression in males making them less likely to fight other dogs. They are also less likely to feel the need to mark their territories by spraying or cocking their legs in the house. A desexed male is 40 times less likely to bite a human than a non-desexed male making them a better family pet. Desexing male dogs reduces the annoying and embarrassing urges of masturbation and 'mounting' the legs of children and adults. Older male dogs can suffer from a number of problems caused by testosterone (the male hormone). The more serious of these conditions include:
Desexing at an early age prevents testosterone from causing these serious diseases.
Desexing will reduce instances of interfemale aggression (aggression towards other female dogs). Desexing will eliminate bleeding every six months when in oestrus (i.e. on heat). It will stop male dogs, attracted by her scent, hanging around your property and her escape attempts in order to get to the male dogs. It prevents pseudo-pregnancies, i.e. false pregnancies, which can be very deceptive, lengthy and difficult to manage and resolve. Desexing prevents pyometra, an infection of the uterus that can cause septicaemia and septic shock, potentially leading to death or fatal irreversible kidney failure. Desexing eliminates the possibility of uterine cancer. If a female is spayed prior to her first oestrus it greatly reduces the possibility of mammary gland (breast) cancer (note - this benefit of breast cancer prevention is lost after 4 oestrus cycles).
Female cats are able to start having litters from 4 months old, then come into season twice a year. Desexed cats and kittens will be more settled, healthier and happier. They are less likely to fight (especially males) reducing the risk of abscesses, infection and feline aids. There is less chance of male cats urinating or spraying on furniture or skirting boards to mark their territory. It can prevent roaming and therefore accidents with cars and rogue dogs and it significantly reduces the risk of cancer of the reproductive organs in cats. Some Common Myths About Desexing Females should have one litter first. No. There is no benefit in letting your pet have a litter before it is spayed. The chances of mammary cancer in bitches gets much lower when they are spayed before their first heat. Spaying a female before breeding her eliminates the chances of medical problems during a pregnancy or during birth or while rearing puppies. My dog would make really great puppies/I want to have another dog just like my dog, so I'm going to breed him/her. Roughly 25-30% of all dogs in shelters are purebreds. Even if your dog is AKC registered, that doesn't mean that the dog should be bred. Before ANY dog is bred the owner should prove that the dog will actually improve the breed. Thorough health testing, including tests for genetic diseases, should also be performed. Also, your dog is a unique individual. There is no guarantee that puppies will resemble their parents in looks or personality, especially if the parents are mixed breed dogs.
The only people who make any money from breeding dogs are those who don't care about the health of their dogs or the quality of the puppies they produce. Responsible breeding requires health testing and medical care, as well as careful consideration of the pedigrees of the parents, their temperament, and whether their puppies would actually improve their breed or merely be more fodder for the shelters. Medical costs before breeding should include extensive health testing and genetic testing for diseases of the eyes, heart and hips. Medical costs after breeding will include pregnancy tests, ultrasound to check the progress of puppies, pregnancy care and perhaps caesarean section if the dog has trouble giving birth. There is also the chance you'll have to pay for veterinary care if the puppies should become ill. Then! Once you have the puppies, you will have to provide vaccinations, worming, premium foods, trips to the veterinary hospital and advertise and sell them. Plus in order to provide socially well adjusted dogs to these great homes you already have organised, you'll have to invest many, many hours into learning about and practicing socialisation, trips outside to encourage housebreaking and buy containment crates as the puppies grow and become mobile.
First, dogs usually give birth in the middle of the night when the children aren't going to be around, as animals prefer to have quiet and privacy during birth. If the mother dog is disturbed by children or too many other witnesses, she may become stressed and abandon the puppies or even kill them. Second, if you want your children to learn responsibility through caring for a puppy, there are many great puppies waiting for adoption at your local shelter. If you want to see the miracle of birth, you should first witness the miracle of death by volunteering at your local shelter for a few weeks. And there's a better alternative: if you want to witness the miracle of birth, rent a video. We can find good homes for the puppies. For every puppy you breed and place in a new home, a puppy or dog in a shelter may die because it wasn't adopted. There simply aren't enough homes for them all. And even if we ignore the puppies in the shelters -- are you SURE your puppies are going to good homes? Have you been to the new homes to check that they are suitable? Have you asked the new owners what they plan to do if their work commitments take them interstate or overseas? Are you willing to take the puppies back if their new homes don't work out? If you produce a puppy, you are responsible for it throughout its entire life - and that could easily be 10 years+. A desexed pet will become fat. Desexing your pet does not make it fat or lazy, only lack of exercise and too much food will do this. Pets lose their personality after desexing. False. Your pet will retain his or her own, very individual personality after the operation. The only 'character' change resulting from desexing may be that your pet calms down a little.
Dogs are not like humans, they don't look forward to having children. Male dogs don't even realize that pups they produce are their own offspring. A dog's reproductive urges are based solely on its hormones. Once the hormones are removed, the urges go away and the dog doesn't miss them. The operation is painful. Pets will experience some tenderness in the affected area immediately after the operation. Your vet can advise you on caring for your pet after desexing. Most cats and dogs bounce back very quickly. Before you let your dog have a litter, spend some time volunteering at your local shelter and see all the puppies and dogs who must be killed daily. Letting your dog breed only adds to the death toll. |
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PetRescue is working to put rescue pets into the hearts and minds of people in such a powerful way that killing healthy, adoptable animals becomes completely unacceptable. PetRescue is a registered non-profit organisation that operates to support and bring resources to rescue groups around Australia. For more information please visit our website, www.PetRescue.com.au. We thank you for your support. © PetRescue Ltd 2008 |
The National Desexing Network (NDN) promoting Desexing Month with the slogan
It's estimated that two hundred thousand healthy cats and dogs are put down every year in Australia because they don't have homes. Pets that are not desexed add to the heartbreaking tragedy of pet overpopulation. One of the best things a responsible animal guardian can do for their pet is to have it desexed.
