How can anyone that loves animals still allow them breed?

I dont get it. SE Wisconsin here and we have such a cat population problem every shelter I know talks Euthanasia like its a pat on the back. 16 kittens dumped last month under cars at the local vet. There is sign at one of the pet food stores where a mother and six babies were dumped at, desperately looking for placement as the store doesn't do animals. 120 kittens for august at the human society came in, 80 percent where put to sleep. Kittens, put to sleep!!? There is no more options out there, putting mass loads of animals to sleep is thing to do now it seems.

I was there on Saturday discussing my options as my 13 year old cat isnt feeling too well to say the least nor is she getting along with the burned kitten I found dumped at our dealership back in July that is doing better now. They flat out told me whoever I would bring would be put to sleep by end of the day.

Given the fact I had stop feeding strays in the winter at my apartment because a dozen was considered a nuisance by the manager I surely dont doubt what I see. The question I cant wrap my brain around is who in the world is still breeding all these animals in this day and age of knowledge and facts? Who is actually calling themselves an animal lover and letting theirs outside? Amplify that with unfixed to boot and your basically saying to world you dont care about it nor your animal. It cant all be farmers, right? Even they must spay and neuter after half dozen I hope? Hell we have such a problem I think even breeders should take time off and refocus our efforts on current animals out there before bring more into the world.

=( I wish there was something I could do to help out!! I don't understand how kittens can be PTS. You can't tell me there is not SOMEONE out there who is willing to take them!! I took in 9 kittens that were going to be put to sleep because they were "too old to be socialized" according to the shelters. The kitties were 10 weeks!! How is that too old?? It seams to me that people are just not willing to take the time to find homes for animals. When I was living in Cali are house backed up to a wash so we had ALL kinds of ferals running arround. We had more then one litter of kittens born in are back yard. We got a trap and got a male kitty, got him fixed and no more kittens! I even found homes for the kittens that were born in are yard, got them fixed and up to date on shots before giving them out! My vet was great she would give me all kids of discounts on the cats that I brought in to her! I think people are too busy thinking about them selves then anything else! Is it so hard to get your pet fixed?? News flash if you can't afford the cost of a pet (shots, food, spayed/nutered. etc) don't get a pet!! I hear the excuse all the time I just could not afford to get my cat fixed. It is more expensive to have a litter of kittens then it is just to get the cat fixed in the first place!

I just can not agree with putting an animal to sleep because you can not find a home for it! BULL **** I find it hard to believe that there is not someone out there who wouldn't be more then happy to take the animal in! I don't even understand how people that work at shelters can even justify this corse of action! I understand it is costly and much harder to run a non-kill shelter, but why are animals not worth it??

Anyway sorry for my rant lol I just don't get it either. I feel bad for all the kitties that do not have homes. I hope someone steps up and starts being responsible and finds homes for the kitties.

Originally Posted by madara

Hell we have such a problem I think even profession high grade breeders should take time off and refocus our efforts on current animals out there before bring more into the world.

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That would cause the breed cats to die out. No more siamese, abby's, bengals, persians, maine coons, rex's, oci's, etc, etc, because the "time off" would be forever, unless the feral cat population is culled to minute numbers.
Breeders aren't and never have been the problem. The problem is and always has been the irresponsible cat owner who doesn't spay and neuter their animal, along with feral cats breeding like rabbits.

There will never be enough homes for all these kittens. IMO, people who choose to buy breed cats were never considering a shelter cat in the first place. They want specific traits, appearance, personality and a guarantee of fitness and health.

Good points I over looked bengal. Though I do think there are too many "fake" or halfassed breeders in my area that dont really have full breeds or cats interest in mind. Kinda like the lady that is a friend of friend of friend that mixes bengals and strays for ten years now, always has someone pregnant and figures she can keep giving them away calling them full breeds when it gets too packed in house with 3 plus litters a year. Or the Abyssinian ad i seen in paper once only to call and find out she could not tell me if she had fawn colored kittens as they were out in the barn and she didnt even get a good look at what she was selling. Boggle.

Originally Posted by Kai Bengals

Breeders aren't and never have been the problem. The problem is and always has been the irresponsible cat owner who doesn't spay and neuter their animal, along with feral cats breeding like rabbits.

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I think this is so very important to point out to any and everyone who will listen. The problem IS the irresponsible cat owners who do NOTHING to spay and neuter and NOT Breeders.

You would think by now with as much as you hear spay and neuter that it would have been understood by now. But there are actually people out there that will let their cat get pregnant just to see/have kittens. What an absolute deeply irresponsible thing to do.

I am a supporter of breeders and will always be, reputable breeders, not the ones who are in for the money, the ones who are in it for the breeds.

I try here, but my area is the WORST out of the entire U.S. We had over 5,000 kittens PTS this summer alone due to the overpopulation. Our shelter had so many kittens coming in, they had to use small animal cages and live traps to house them because they had run out of room. Its madness!! If people would just spay and neuter their animals it wouldn't happen. People go around blaming our SPCA, but they HAD To put those kittens down..They didn't have room for them. Its the PEOPLE's fault, not the SPCAs.

Currently I do what I can to help out by fostering and trapping ferals so they can be spayed. I also help other people get their cats and kittens spayed (through the rescue I foster for, since I get free spays/neuters).

People are lazy, ignorant and irresponsible. Our rescue has had to turn away moms and babies b/c we are foster based and have NO room. People were dumping cats at out Petsmart partner store.

I have even heard people say about their female cats -- the little "****" or "*****" got pregnant. EXCUSE ME?????!!!!! Who didn't fix the cat? Who let her out when she was in heat? She was just following the call of Nature. She doesn't know anything else. IT'S YOU who is the piece of work.

One person dumped a preg mama at the store... but had doused her with so much flea killer that the babies were born with deformities or were still born. They all died. Mom survived.

Or even worse, the people who dump their own cats at shelters because their lifestyle doesn't suit. I would rather deal with people who let their cat get pregnant any day, usually we help them find a low-cost spay/neuter place and agree to take their kittens so they aren't given 'free to a good home' with no vet care to perpetuate the problem.

But what I can't stand is the 'oh he isn't cute anymore' or 'well I am going on vacation and boarding is expensive so you take him'. These adult cats generally have no health records, have never been seen by a vet and are at the shelter longer in a cage that could hold 4-5 young kittens.

We are a private shelter so we don't have the same mandate as AC and can turn them away saying it is your problem, but what is the point, they will just dump them on the street (or take them out of the carrier, throw them in the door and take the carrier because they can get $5 for it) and we have to deal with it anyway.

We should be doing more to spay/neuter but the fact is, with the way the economy is, a lot of people can't afford it. So do you adopt to them knowing they can't afford it or do you have the kitten PTS? Not all vets will do pediatric spay/neuters. So do you wait until they are 5 months and spayed before adopting them out? They will sit in the shelter like half the adult cats do!

I think the solution is for their to be a national/international organization run by donations that spay and neuter for free. It is the only solution. At our shelter we have a vet hospital and we are no kill but we can only do so much.
There are also local spay and neuter for low income residents. The problem is people want to help. I get people in my neighborhood offering to start a fund to spay and neuter as many cats as we can. But this is an affluent neighborhood where most of the pets are fixed anyway. The strays that find their way here are dumped from other neighborhoods or just relocated here themselves. There are lower income people who would love to help and fix as many cats as they can but they just don't have the money. You have backyard breeders who are very irresponsible adding to the issue.
To me this is a crisis situation and one that is largely ignored and under reported.
Breeders have an important place in the cat world that should not be maligned. Reputable breeders are wonderful PR for cats and how varied and cool they can be. They are a wealth of knowledge about cats and breeds. They don't overbreed their Queens so I don't have an issue with them. You don't find a lot of pedigree cats coming through the shelter. Most are mixes though you will get some Siamese.
It really breaks my heart.

Originally Posted by madara

Hell we have such a problem I think even breeders should take time off and refocus our efforts on current animals out there before bring more into the world.

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Originally Posted by Kai Bengals

That would cause the breed cats to die out.

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http://www.breedingpedigreedcats.com...2004302008.pdf

In an ironic twist, breeders of pedigreed cats not lonely face the extinction of their own
breeds, they are also blamed for contributing to shelter overpopulation!

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http://www.breedingpedigreedcats.com...2004302008.pdf

the pedigreed cat population
living in US households will soon reach the point of negative population growth.
Anecdotal data indicates that some specific breeds may already be at that point.

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