The Importance of Spaying & Neutering Your Pets

It was a television mainstay for decades: "This is Bob Barker reminding you to help control the pet population. Have your pets spayed or neutered." But why was the former host of "The Price Is Right" so passionate about it? It's because there already are millions of unwanted pets in the United States already, and they create many burdens on the environment and endure considerable suffering of their own.

  1. Animal Suffering

    • There are many millions of unwanted pets in the world. Some of these are still kept as pets, where they are often subjected to neglect or even overt cruelty. Others are exterminated by their owners. Many more are simply abandoned, turned loose on the streets, where they are left to fend for themselves. Many pets die this way, through starvation, disease, attacks by predators, or by being rounded up and put into pounds, and subsequently exterminated if they are not adopted. Many of these unwanted pets would not have been born in the first place if their owners had spayed or neutered their parents.

    Feral Animal Population Growth

    • When pets are abandoned, if they are still fertile and manage to survive on their own, they frequently end up producing offspring. Their offspring are feral---never handled by humans and frequently unfit for life inside a home. Their fate, when caught by animal control personnel, is to be destroyed. The feral animal population is largely invisible, but exists all around us in our towns and cities as the direct result of human negligence. Spaying or neutering your pets will spare many of these unwanted animals the hardships of existing in the first place.

    Threat to Wildlife

    • Pets often emerge as predators, posing a danger to wildlife. Cats, for instance, are a major destroyer of birds. Large populations of pets cause noticeable imbalances in the local food chain, and reduce the safe habitat for a variety of threatened species. This is true of well-cared-for pets, abandoned pets, and their feral offspring. Spaying and neutering your pets will help keep the animal population lower, which in turn will protect wildlife.

    Spreading Disease

    • Abandoned pets and feral animals often contract and spread diseases, contributing to outbreaks that threaten the health of your pets and even human health itself. By spaying or neutering your pets, you can reduce the density of the unwanted animal population, and thereby reduce the spread of disease.

    Environmental Burdens

    • Even the most beloved and well-cared-for pets, by virtue of their status high on the food chain and their industrialized lifestyle, place significant demands on the Earth's environment and natural resources. As Kate Ravilious wrote in the New Scientist in 2009, the United States "is home to over 76 million felines and 61 million canines." Such large populations require large industries to support their lifestyles. Even if you are willing and able to take care of more pets rather than a few, there are serious environmental costs in doing so. By spaying or neutering your pets, you can control the pet population and help reduce environmental degradation and resource depletion.