Why is it bad not to get your cat spayed/neutered?

(I'm really sorry if "Cat Health" is the wrong thing to post this on.)
Um, well you see, my cat had kittens recently, and ny Mom says that we might get her fixed now, but I really don't like that idea. I don't like spaying and neutering, but I'm just a kid, and I never asked anybody why it's a good idea. So can someone tell me WHY it's bad to not get a cat spayed/neutered?

Well, have you ever gone to your local animal shelter? Or seen homeless cats around dumpsters? There are millions and millions of kittens born every year, and there are not even nearly enough homes for all of them. So you know what happens to them . Approximately 3-7 million cats (just cats! This isn't counting the dogs!) are killed in shelters in the US each year. It's not just shelters, of course---many people drown/shoot unwanted cats/kittens, many homeless cats die of disease, starvation, or being hit by cars, etc. It's not a nice life (or death) for an unwanted cat.

There are also health considerations. A female cat who isn't spayed will have 2-3 litters a year, every year. This puts a heavy strain on her body, and she will likely end up dying of birthing complications when her body has worn out (from observing farm cats, I've seen that this usually happens after 10 litters, when she is only 5-6 years old). If she's not allowed to breed, there are a lot of problems related to being in heat so often---breast cancer and a uterine infection called pyometra are not uncommon. There are many other reproductive diseases as well. If you want your cat to live a long healthy life, spaying her is a real necessity. Average lifespan for a spayed cat is MUCH increased.

For males, there are not a lot of health considerations as far as their actual reproductive system goes (although obviously they can't get testicular cancer after being neutered :tongue2. But there are still health considerations---unneutered tomcats are far more likely to fight, and this dramatically increases their chances of contracting Feline Leukemia, FIV, abscessed infections, and other bite-related diseases. They are also much more likely to wander, increasing their chances of being hit by a car or meeting up with a cruel human. Also, one male can father hundreds, even thousands, of kittens! If he has Feline Leukemia or another disease, he will pass that on to the female and the kittens. And, behaviorally, an unneutered tom is extremely difficult to live with indoors, as they usually spray strong-smelling urine everywhere, and are more likely to behave roughly towards humans.

If you Google "why spay and neuter your pets" you'll find even more info .

If you are successful in keeping them from getting out and mating, that is a big if, they are going to be very frustrated and unhappy.  They have one overriding need and that is to mate.  It is not at all uncommon for a female to almost stay in heat until they mate and a cat in heat is a very difficult cat to live with.  I am a huge cat lover but I think I would have a definite limit to how much of a cat in heat that I could take.

There are to many cats.  The cost and care going into raising a litter if mom rejects them is BIG.  You mentioned in another that your cat gave birth to 3 who died soon after.  That alone makes me wonder how well your female is health wise.  Is she very young? Was she offered GOOD quality kitten food?

By mating they are exposed to many diseases that the boys pick up during fighting. The kittens are also at risk of contracting these diseases and suffering or living only a few months. The injuries they can recieve from mating or being in between a fight could be serious enough to need surgery.  In many cases an antibiotic will be needed
 

If you have issues with altering your cat, then that's fine, but as others have said...at best, your kitty will be bloody annoying going into heat all the time. I know people who were too cheap to spay their female cats and got rid of them because they wouldn't quit howling all day and night. At worst, there could be various health concerns, such as the cat's health with each pregnancy (meaning no unaltered males in the house; yes, cats will mate with their grown babies), and pyometra, which I believe is fatal. It ca be very hard to keep an eye on your kitty when she's not spayed, as she will do whatever she must to find a mate, which could mean darting out the door the second you're not paying attention and coming back pregnant again. Not to mention the tom cats she'll find. I could be mistaken, but I believe that a queen can carry the kittens of multiple toms within the same litter,meaning more chances for injury (since toms can be aggressive when mating), as well as more chances for disease transmission.

Plus allowing more kittens to be born means that potential homes will be taken from existing kittens. I promise, a cat will not mourn the loss of her fertility if it's removed. The whole thing of "wah wah I can't have a baby, woe is me" is a totally human mindset. Cats, unfortunately, don't know any better and will just serial breed. There are just not enough homes for all the kitties out there and unless you're a licensed breeder with all the necessary papers and such, having a cat altered is as much of a responsibility as feeding them, providing them with litter, and getting them shots.

Try as you might, you may fail in preventing your kitty from getting pregnant again and then you have to worry about what to do with the kittens. Do you keep them or do you re-home them? If you keep kittens and get none of them fixed, they will all inbreed and every single one of the female cats could wind up having a litter inside of a year. Re-homing is not easy because no one wants cats. You can't even give animals away.

I apologize if I am being preachy, but it is very important to help keep the animal population down so that fewer animals have to be killed (simply due to lack of space) and more can be given homes.Your cat won't hate you and go cry on infertility message boards behind your back or anything if you spay her. It might be a little expensive, but it's cheaper than caring for all the possible litters a female cat can have in one lifetime.

catsallaround said:

There are to many cats.  The cost and care going into raising a litter if mom rejects them is BIG.  You mentioned in another that your cat gave birth to 3 who died soon after.  That alone makes me wonder how well your female is health wise.  Is she very young? Was she offered GOOD quality kitten food?

By mating they are exposed to many diseases that the boys pick up during fighting. The kittens are also at risk of contracting these diseases and suffering or living only a few months. The injuries they can recieve from mating or being in between a fight could be serious enough to need surgery.  In many cases an antibiotic will be needed

 

Click to expand...

I, well, I THINK it was good quality. My Mom's the one that gets it, I don't really know. Um, I think she's about one year old. And we'll, she's and outdoor cat, if that makes a difference, which it probably does. (But she never leaves the property, our yard is real big, and we have an upstairs patio that the cats spend a lot of their time on. That's where they sleep too. Unfortunately, we couldn't bring the kittens inside when they were born because my older sister has allergies.)

The boys will mate her anytime she is outside.  They are creative of getting the female cat in heat. Birds will easily take a kitten as a meal.  My husband does RC cars and was testing one out when a bid came down and got the car pretty good.  These are HEAVY cars so a kitten and even a small cat is nothing.  The kittens can overheat easily and chill easily when it gets colder. 
 

IF the kittens survive (and 90%+ of kittens born outdoors do not), they will be ready to mate when they're 4-6 months old. And the mama cat may be pregnant again already by now. Are you ready to have ALL those cats?

Willowy said:

IF the kittens survive (and 90%+ of kittens born outdoors do not), they will be ready to mate when they're 4-6 months old. And the mama cat may be pregnant again already by now. Are you ready to have ALL those cats?

Click to expand...

Good point!  Also disease will spread fast and people may complain.  usually a cat or two outside is if anything a pain but when you talk about dozens of cats all over(and some leaving to establish territory by marking) they will be noticed and either dealt with by poisoning/shooting or a call to the police/shelter.  In many areas you can knowingly trap an owned cat if it is on your property as long as you take it to shelter as soon as trapped.  You do not have to state it is owned by your neighbor a house away.

Why spay and neuter?

Because it saves lives, because it benefits the cat (or dog); it helps ensure your pet lives a longer, healthier life; it benefits you because without those raging hormones, your cat becomes a more loving pet; and finally, spaying and neutering benefits the community, because you are not contributing to an increase in the homeless cat population.

When you spay or neuter your cat, you prevent more (potentially homeless) cats from being born. But as already pointed out, even if you adopt out the kittens, you are taking up homes that could have adopted already existing cats and kittens. Here is an adoption site. http://www.petfinder.com/ Choose just "cat" and type in your zip code. How many cats are already up for adoption through just this one service in your area? Where I live, there are 610 pages with 15,226 cats listed as available for adoption right now. Why should those cats be killed so your cat can have kittens, and those kittens will grow up to reproduce?

When you spay or neuter your cat, there are long term beneficial health consequences. Especially with outdoor animals, you help prevent the contraction and spread of disease.

Your cats live outside. Right now they seem to stay in your yard; but there's nothing to contain them there. Not all families stay together. If some wander or relocate, you've created unowned cats that will bother the neighbors, raid garbage cans, eat wildlife. Their offspring will become feral, and all will reproduce, unchecked.

The choice to spay or neuter means you you value the lives of animals. It means you do not think they are disposable, to be treated as waste or garbage, only to be killed because there are so many without homes. The choice to spay or neuter means you believe animals should not suffer. The choice to spay or neuter means you value the quality of life of your pet.

Put is this way, it saves lives! In my small town of 800 people, you know how many cats/kittens are available for adoption? 744, that's almost as many cats as their is people. Imagine, being a cat living in those shelters unwanted no one seems to care, because not many people want, need, or can even afford more cats. What happens to those unwanted cats? They get killed, no more room for them. If you keep letting your cats breed, that means more kittens, more lives at risk in shelters. Also, large amounts of cats living in one area can lead to a lot of problems health wise. A cat "cold" can spread fast, and is deadly, but can be treated by a vet, with a lot of cats I don't believe you could afford that, and the time it would cost to help them.

Even in my little tiny town, there is/was a huge problem in one neighborhood with stray cats because a couple irresponsible people would get cats and not spay or neuter them. They'd mate over and over, usually inbreeding, and before you know it, there was loads of cats with no end in sight to the population. The town council had traps set all over the neighborhood to catch all the cats they could, take them to the shelter, alter them and....I don't know if they got returned to the area or kept at the shelter. Unfortunately this plan didn't quite work because people would break the traps to free the cats, sometimes keeping the traps. Because they didn't care about their cats at any other time except when someone else was trying to take them away. Kind of like people who neglect their kids and only throw a fit when CPS tries to remove said kids.

Other people in the neighborhood were far less tolerant of spraying toms and pregnant females and would shoot them, poison them, or run over them.Your kitty is an outside cat, and even if she doesn't leave the yard, there is nothing to stop a determined tom cat from finding his way into your yard. Also, can I ask why you have kitties if your sister has allergies? You could be looking at a very large population in a very short time if you were to keep all the kittens and get none of them altered. All it takes is a tom and a queen to start a huge cat colony, and very few people are tolerant of wily, noisy strays.

But if you and/or your mum are alright with knowing that these outdoor-only kittens have a high chance of dying or being killed (by cars, by tom cats, by stray dogs, by the elements, by neighbors) and that any future litters could be doomed to similar fates, then by all means don't alter your female cat. A little prevention can go a long way in helping keep cat overpopulation under control. A single female cat and produce a few litters a year, and one single tom cat can impregnate countless females within the same time frame. While the kittens dying in this litter might have been a fluke, there could be an issue with your kitty that could cause her to lose her kittens all the time. Which wouldn't exactly be bad since it sounds like a less than ideal situation for kittens to be born into, but her getting pregnant often wouldn't be good for her health.