Why cat owners refuse to spay-neuter their cats

Living with an unneutered or unspayed cat is a lot like living with a teenager. Can we spay/neuter them, too?

I know some adult humans who should have been spayed/neutered as teens.

A big reason I hear is that the guy in the house doesn't want to do that to another guy! It's funny, but I honestly hear that a lot!

One thing to keep in mind is that a cat that is not used for breeding goes through unnecessary heat cycles (in a females case), or unnecessary production of sperm (in the males case). This increases the risk for testicular cancer in males, which neutering solves. Having and unaltered male also puts them at risk for a prostate infection. Once an animal gets a prostate infection, there are no antibiotics that can cross the barrier into the prostate, so the only solution? You guessed it! Neutering! In females, each heat cycle they go through unsuccessfully puts them at risk for ovarian or uterine cancer, and the reason we recommend to spay at a young age or before the first heat cycle, is to reduce the risk of breast cancer, which increases with every passing heat cycle.

If the guy in your house likes the look of an unaltered pet (which is weird, but hey, I guess it's a guy thing! ), there is always Neuticals, which are silicone testicles that are implanted into the scrotom to give the appearance of testicles.

Hope that helps you arsenal of spaying and neutering. I work for a full service medical center with the SPCA, so I'm used to convincing people to spay or neuter, as that is our mission!

Okie

Glad to hear this, Mystery Cat!

That's the argument that gets me. Makes me shake my head every time.

I'm very glad to know you are getting Charlie neutered. When's the big day?

(I don't know how anyone can stand to be around an intact male anyway, my gosh, their pee stinks so )

I know, that's got to be one of the stupidest reasons going!

Going along with spaying/neutering teenagers- having a tubal ligation in human women also lowers the risk of ovarian and endometrial lining cancer..I don't know if a vasectomy does anything beneficial to men, I'll have to look into that.

But honestly the benefits of lower risk of cancer of the reproductive organs is not one of the main reasons to neuter an animal, for me at least- it is mostly the fact that I don't want my kitty to live in frustration that he can't find a mate because he's locked indoors, lol..that is close to torture IMO

I've heard the reason for guys not wanting to do that to another guy, it must be a guy thing, I don't understand it, but my dad was strongly opposed to getting Jake neutered, and since I did it anyway he still sometimes reminds me that I've made my cat handicapped and he is no longer complete..

My granddaughter lived with her other grandparents, who claimed they couldn't afford to neuter the male kitten she'd found. He was not allowed in the house (unless she sneaked him in). The cat, of course, he was always battered from fights.

I was concerned for my grandaughter more than anything, so I finally took him the vet for surgery and shots. I recuperated him for a few days. He was the sweetest ginger boy - what a love bug. When I returned him, the grandfather said very angrily "What did you do to my cat, now he can't have girlfriends."

I shot back "he can have all the girlfriends he wants, he just can't make kittens!"

Turns out, the grandfather really loves that cat. My granddaughter moved out but the cat stayed - and sleeps with grandpop!

OK, You know we all here like you a lot, right? And as so, I am going to tell you this, as someone who likes you a lot:
Please, do not adopt another kitten...

I know this hard to hear, but you just can not afford it... For a long time you couldn't afford to take Charlie to the vet for basic care, including vaccines, and to check on possible illness when he was not eating properly and was so very skinny... He was also not neutered on time... Not even a carrier you could afford for him.

I know this is very painful to hear... But please, please don't take me wrong... I know you love this kitten, but the best you can do for him is to find him a loving home that CAN afford proper care.

You can also educate whoever owns "Charlie's Girlfriend" to get her spayed. Not only she has risks of having another litter very soon, but health risks as well...

Honey, please, believe me...

I am going through one of the worst times of my life right now because my kitties need vet care and I ALMOST wasn't able to give them. Luckily I have means to get it done as I do have a vet that will treat them no matter what... But I know this is not your case.
Please do not put yourself on the same situation... Believe me when I say it is not fair for the kitten, but also it is not fair and HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE for you too...

Honestly I can't understand how anyone can live with an intact tom indoors. Their urine smells so bad it makes me crazy. I had a semi-feral tom in my bathroom for a week or so before his neuter and, even changing the litter daily, the odor was so bad I could barely stand it. And that's just urine in the litterbox, without taking spraying into account...

And I wouldn't want to torture the poor guy by leaving his sexual desires intact without a way to indulge them. But of course he can't be allowed to indulge his desires because of overpopulation, so it's just best to remove the desire entirely.

And of course if the tom is allowed outdoors he's adding to overpopulation just as much as the females are. Just because he's not the one giving birth doesn't mean he's not doing his part. And the fighting! Outdoor toms always seem to be badly injured in some way. Ripped-up ears, scratches all over, abscesses, etc. Which leads to FeLV/FIV transmission.

For females of course there are health benefits. They seem so miserable when they're in heat that I just won't do that to the poor ladies. A few of the older females I've had spayed actually seemed to be grateful. After they got over being sore, of course, LOL. I wouldn't keep a female intact on humane grounds. And even if she's kept inside, she'll probably get out at least once in her life. The stakes are just too high to have any risk of pregnancy; too many cats and kittens are killed every year because of a lack of homes.

I am so glad to hear this....
and for you to find them wonderful homes

working in a shelter during kitten season is enough to know why people need to speuter their cats, but I am glad you are getting Charlie neutered.

When finding homes for the kittens, and many people here can help you, interview the people who want them and make sure they will do vaccines and speuter the kittens

Ill be honest here Sooty is neutred but flash isnt spayed but shes going in to be spayed soon as ive had to save up for it as i quit my full time job irresponsible yes but she is going in to be "done"

This is so true! When people find out I work at the SPCA, they always say "Ohhh, I don't know HOW you can do that! It would break my heart!" (Which I can't stand it when people say that! It's not like I kill animals all day... and it's hard enough for me, I don't need people telling me how hard it is....)

And then they procede to tell me that their cat is unaltered and about to have a litter of kittens. When I tell them how many cats and KITTENS even that we have to euthanized in ONE WEEK, they usually respond by saying they'll get their kitty fixed after this litter.

It's very sad, the pet overpopulation. But, all we can do is do our best.

Okie

I was guilty of not fixing Hercules for over a year when we had him. Mainly because we only had males, he never got out and we didnt have a female. As soon as I adopted GiGi from the side of the road I went right on the way to findining a low cost s/n clinic and thanks to here I found one and got him and her fixed. Thank the high heavens I got her done because I almost didnt because Herc was fixed so no kitten...GiGi is such a snuggle meowing nuisance now I can only imagine how she would have been in heat I would have ripped my hair out!!!!!

Here it's usually cost. Many won't spend that much money on something that's "just a cat" - but this means they're not neutering or spaying their dogs, either.


O/T. My mother recently got a puppy. The breeder () doesn't want her to neuter him - but the puppy is not even remotely show quality and physically isn't good enough to be a breeder (very minor cosmetic defaults). I think the guy is nuts. She intends to neuter the puppy because she doesn't want to deal with an unneutered dog.

I know someone who adopted a dog where the breeder doesnt want him neutered until 3 years to allow him to grow to his full potential

It's a pitbull, his full potential is going to be about 40-45lbs and around knee height. They hit that easily before 2 years.

I'm sure she probably will. You can't be trusting if there's any money to be made, someone will get greedy.

I didn't know pits could be done free anywhere. There's certainly enough of them that there doesn't need to be BYBers or oops mix litters. German shepherds and rottweiler fall into that category, too..

I still have one female kitten that isn't spay, yet. The vet says that she seems healthy, but this has to be one of the slowest growing kittens I've ever had. Soon her brother literally will be twice her size. At near 7 months she still has not even had a heat.

I don't think that's a problem with her. But if she doesn't put on an inch here soon I'm going to ask the vet to make sure nothing is seriously wrong with her. For her size, through, her weight is good and her activity level is typical kitten. She's loud to begin with so I don't want to find out how much louder she can get.

I hope your girl keeps going strong.

And better free spay and neuters for the breed than breed bans. If there were more options for this, everywhere, I feel more people would get their pets spay and neutered - because honestly, who wants to deal with litter after litter of puppies and kittens? Some say they're cute and that they enjoy them, but even they get tired of it.

It's actually really hard to tell what is and isn't a pit - they're so mixed anymore and there are other dogs and crosses that look like them. Boston terrier crosses look pit-like. Do warn her that any terrier may be a bit iffy with cats if not raised with them (same with pits, they're a terrier after all). I hope they can find a good dog, though - and hopefully already fixed so they don't have to worry about it.