It might seem odd but desexing your pet can often be the best thing you can do for them. It doesn’t make them unhappy but it does help to keep them safe. Desexing has many health benefits as well as behavioural ones. Take a look at our top 5 reasons to desex your pets.
- It keeps them from wandering.
Dogs and cats will both wander from home when they are looking for a mate. A stray male can create many babies in just one night as he goes from female to female. Even worse, though, is the risk he puts himself at by wandering around the streets. He could be hit by a car or captured by your local pet patrol (the better although more expensive option).
- Reduces the birth of unwanted animals
The RSPCA says that its shelters take in around 160,000 animals nationally each year, many of which are the result of unplanned breeding.
What do you do if you are landed with a litter of unwanted kittens or puppies? You give them away and hope the new owner is a decent sort of person. You give them to a pet shop to sell and hope that they will be cared for. Or you dump them somewhere and pretend they didn’t exist.
Perhaps that’s not your sort of behaviour (thank heavens) but unwanted animals are a liability rather than an asset, and they can become “disposable”, a view which makes me angry and upset. If you don’t want your pets to have babies, desexing is a simple step to take.
- Decreases their desire to fight.
Often your pets will choose to fight to protect their mating territory, or keep other males away from their female mate. By desexing your pets you remove the need to fight over mating rights but you are also reducing production of the hormone which makes animals, especially males, aggressive. If you have children at home, an aggressive pet is bound to be a problem at some stage.
- Stops them from making a mess at home.
Female pets leave little blood droplets when they are on heat, which can stain your floors and carpets. Male pets choose to spray their urine around the house to mark their territories. If they have not been desexed, the smell is much stronger and it’s difficult to remove the odour. The smell of tomcat lingers for a long time and they manage to spray in the smallest and most hard to get to places….
- It’s good for their health.
The National Desexing Network says that there are many health benefits for your pets, including:
Reduced risk of getting cancer or other diseases of the reproductive organs, such as testicular cancer, prostate cancer/disorders in males, and cystic ovaries, ovarian tumors, acute uterine infections and breast cancer in females, and also other diseases like mammary cancer, perianal tumors and perianal hamias.
The cost of desexing your pet is probably far less than the price you might pay if they are not.
If you love your pets, please make the decision to protect and care for them. Book an appointment with your local vet and have your pets desexed.
