by Marcelle Mccallum

Created on: March 26, 2009   Last Updated: March 29, 2009

Although it may seem cruel, desexing your cats is very important for a number of reasons. Female cats are capable of having litters in quick succession. This can be problematic not only for the mother cat, but for the kittens which result. Many countries cannot rehome cats fast enough, so they are euthanized. Here in Queensland, Australia, a cat has three days to make someone fall in love with it or it is put down. This is because of financial pressures on the RSPCA, and the sheer number of cats. There are other shelters, but they suffer the same constraints as the RSPCA. As feral animals, they do quite a lot of damage to our indigenous wildlife as well, particularly lizards. It is important to be aware of this problem and not contribute to it. Having litter after litter also takes its toll on a cat's body and is not great for their health in the long term.

Neutering male cats is important, not only because it potentially contributes without the owner's knowledge to the number of feral and euthanized cats, by impregnating un-spayed females. But also because male cats have a tendency towards aggression and fighting when they have not been fixed. On top of that they spray, or mark their territory with urine, frequently. The constant fighting is a danger to all cats involved as they run a big risk of abscesses and other complications from the scratches bad bite marks from other cats. I have even encountered cats who are Feline HIV +, unfortunately, one of them is male and unfixed and causes a great deal of worry to all cat owners around it. The owners will neither have it fixed, nor keep it locked in. They will not entertain the thought of euthanasia either despite the cat's lack of quality of life and danger to the cats around it.

It is simply irresponsible to leave your cats whole. A female cat, whose litters you can ensure are homed properly is fine, but unless you are going to control her outings so that she gets breaks in between her litters, you are going to feel like a cat breeder really quickly . Their fighting is quite dirty and runs the risk for all involved of not just abscesses and infections, but serious incurable diseases such as Feline HIV. Think carefully before leaving your cats whole. The ramifications of just one whole male cat let to go feral are massive. Add great numbers of feral cats each year, and it is easy to see why it is the only responsible course of action to take.

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