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Keep Animal Overpopulation in Check, Neuter or Spay Your Pet

Jasmin Malik Chua, Jersey City, USA

Jasmin Malik Chua

By Jasmin Malik Chua
Jersey City, NJ, USA | Sun Mar 23, 2008 01:21 PM ET

Mother cat and kitten


Unknown.

READ MORE ABOUT:
Animals | Cats | Dogs | Green Pets | Health | Waste Disposal

Just think about it: Every day, tens of thousands of puppies and kittens are born in the United States because of the unchecked overbreeding of pets, strays, and abandoned companion animals. Meanwhile, out of the 6 million to 8 million dogs and cats that troop into U.S. shelters each year, roughly 4 million of them are euthanized because of a lack of available homes, according to the Humane Society of the United States.

Compound these numbers with the health threat that stray and abandoned animals can pose by defecating in public areas, toppling over trash cans, and attacking passers-by and local wildlife, and we have a proverbial crisis on our hands. One small step every pet owner can take to help stem the tide of overpopulation is to spay or neuter their animal buddies as soon as they're of age. (Spay surgery is done on female animals, while neuter surgery is for their male counterparts.)

The ASPCA has a list of other reasons you'll want to spay or neuter your pet, including mitigating certain cancers, as well as dampening aggressive behavior. If you're short of cash, the international animal-rights non-profit also provides a database of low-cost spay-and-neuter providers, searchable by zip code.

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