Spaying and neutering pets saves lives

Spay and neuter. You’ve likely heard these terms before — especially if you have pets. Choosing to have your pet spayed or neutered is so important, for several reasons. The procedure, performed at your veterinarian’s office or a spay/neuter clinic, helps your pet stay healthier and happier, and most important of all, the choice to spay or neuter your pet helps save the lives of those without homes. That’s because your choice to spay or neuter reduces the number of accidental litters being born.

Before attempting to rescue any wild animal, please see the resource “Wild Animal Rescue: Helping Orphaned or Injured Wildlife.” It’s important to read that resource first because every year many young wild animals are “rescued” by well-meaning people who assume that the young animals are orphans. Often, the parents are nearby and the young animals do not need to be rescued at all.

If you have determined that a wild mammal does indeed need to be rescued, read on.

Every year, many thousands of young wild animals are “rescued” by kind people wanting to help them. Unfortunately, many of these young animals do not need to be rescued. They do not need help and, in fact, moving them means that they are being separated from their mothers.

Breed-specific legislation (BSL), also called breed-discriminatory legislation (BDL), affecting pit bull terriers, is ineffective at keeping communities safe because such laws target the wrong thing and ignore the real issue.

Adopt instead of buy

If you’re considering adding a new pet to the family, we urge you to adopt instead of buy a pet from an online retailer or pet store. By adopting from an animal shelter or rescue group, you are ensuring that you are not supporting and endorsing the inhumane commercial breeding facilities (puppy mills) that supply pet stores and sell pets online. As an extra bonus, you are doing your part to fight pet overpopulation and save homeless animals from euthanasia.

Where can you adopt a dog or cat?

Here are some ways to adopt:

Trap-neuter-return (TNR) is a management technique in which community cats are humanely trapped, evaluated, spayed or neutered by a licensed veterinarian, ear-tipped to show they’ve been sterilized, vaccinated against rabies and distemper,* and then returned to their original habitat. Targeted TNR (i.e., maximizing the number of cats sterilized at the colony or neighborhood level) offers several benefits over the inefficient approaches that have been used for generations, such as complaint-driven impoundment, which is often followed by lethal injection. These benefits include:

Note: Trap-neuter-return is also referred to as Trap Neuter Return, trap/neuter/return and TNR.

Summer can be the most fun time of year for people and pets. Enjoying a beautiful summer day together is great, but the heat can also be dangerous or even deadly for dogs, cats and other pets. Luckily, with just a few precautions, you can keep pets safe in the summer heat.

Background

Commercial breeding establishments, or puppy mills, are large-scale facilities where dogs are confined in small enclosures for their entire reproductive lives with little to no exercise or positive human contact. The sole purpose of such facilities is to mass-produce puppies to sell them for profit through retail pet stores and via the Internet.