Are mandatory spaying and neutering laws an enforceable or practical idea?

Yes

7 of 9

by Ardeth Baxter

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No law is completely enforceable: that's why we still have murder, theft, rape, animal abuse, etc. But having a law on the books that mandates spaying and neutering is an eminently practical solution to a tremendous problem that most people, even pet guardians, don't think much about: animal overpopulation.

In California a mandatory spay/neuter law was passed not long ago that professional and backyard breeders were, predictably, very upset about. But here's the sad truth. Many pet guardians are irresponsible and let their dogs roam and breed. Add to that the fact that our society allows the existence of puppy and kitten mills that pump out millions of dogs and cats every year assembly line style. There are also so-called breed fanciers who are in the business of producing purebred dogs and cats for sale. And last but not least, there are the backyard breeders who are eager to make a few extra bucks off their dogs and cats by allowing them to produce litters. Something must be done to regulate the number of animals bred by all these unthinking and selfish people.

Mandatory spay/neuter laws should be passed in all fifty states. Why? Because that's the most humane and sane solution to the pet overpopulation crisis. Here are some sobering statistics. According to the Humane Society of the United States, some six to eight million cats and dogs are abandoned at shelters every year, and about half of them are euthanized, even though they're healthy and adoptable. And twenty-five percent of shelter dogs are purebreds that were purchased from professional breeders or pet stores and then rejected, often for trivial reasons. That is simply unacceptable in a society that values its pets as members of the family. Euthanasia of living dogs and cats is far crueler than preventing their births in the first place.

Another good reason for spay/neuter laws is that both dogs and cats are prolific breeders. A fertile female cat can produce three litters in one year, with up to six kittens in a litter. An unspayed female dog can have two litters yearly with as many as ten puppies per litter. It has been estimated that a single female cat and her offspring can produce 420,000 cats in just seven years, while a single female dog and her offspring can produce 67,000 dogs. Given those cold hard facts, it's not hard to understand why there are millions of homeless dogs and cats in the United States.

In an ideal world, every pet guardian would be responsible for their pets' behavior and there would be no unscrupulous people who were more interested in making a profit for themselves than in the interests of the dogs and cats they exploited as breeding machines. In that nonexistent Eden, spay/neuter laws would not be necessary. But that is not the world we live in.

As a society, we objectify and commodify pets and also expect them to be at our beck and call, comforting us, entertaining us, and serving as family members, companions and assistants. We owe them a lot for all they give to us. One gift we can offer all of them if we so choose is a long, healthy, happy life, not a brief, unhappy existence cruelly cut short by a needle filled with pentobarbital. The rest of the United States should follow the enlightened example of California and make spaying and neutering mandatory.

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