Reduce The Stray Cat Population By Spaying

Your Cat Essay, Research Paper

REDUCE THE STRAY CAT POPULATION BY SPAYING YOUR CAT

1. Did you know that every un-spayed female cat and her offspring might produce up to 420,000 kittens over a seven-year period?

2. Today, you will realize the effect un-spayed cats can have on increasing the number of the stray feline population.

3. Almost everyone has a stray cat roaming the neighborhood, and should be concerned. Stray cats can spread diseases, and are a menace to society. In order to keep our neighborhoods clean and safe; everyone needs to address this issue.

A. I have encountered this problem myself.

1. When I lived in an apartment, I lived next door to a couple who refused to spay their two female cats.

a. Clint and Tracy didn’t think their cats would be the same if they had them spayed, so they never had them fixed.

b. Their two female cats produced a constant steam of kittens.

c. At least two times a year, their cats were pregnant, and had anywhere from 3 to 9 kittens at a time.

2. Each times the kittens were born; they would just as quickly disappear. This made me really suspicious.

a. So, I decided to adopt one of their kittens, and ask how they had gotten rid of the others so quickly.

b. I was shocked when Tracy told me, they would drive the kittens they weren’t able to give away to the river, and let them go wild.

c. When I remembered all the liters of cute little kittens that had been born year after year, only to become wild, diseased strays, I was astonished.

B. Unfortunately, my neighbors are not the only people lacking in responsibility, and willing to burden society with their unwanted cats.

1. In the same great apartment, I also encountered another stray cat situation.

a. A pregnant, wild cat decided to make her home in my backyard. She quickly had her kittens, and just as swiftly abandoned them, leaving me with two tiny kittens that thought of my backyard as home. I did end up adopting one of the kittens, and gave the other to a friend. I didn’t plan on getting another cat, but I didn’t want to see this kitten become sick and homeless.

2. In the November 1998 issue of Cat Fancy Magazine, Marylyn Christopher, a reader who wrote in to tell her story of when she found 12 abandoned kittens in a nearby park. She states that she tried to catch all the kittens, but was only able to coax three to come to her, all of which she adopted. Although, the other 9 have since come to think of the park as home; where they survive off trash and handouts.

3. Another reader, Candice Temlor also writes into Cat Fancy Magazine, in the, “Letters from Readers” portion, complaining about wild strays in her neighborhood, and specifically of the 10 kittens that were abandoned in her yard. She cared for the kittens until they were old enough to survive, and then decided to keep half, and gave the remaining five away to good homes.

C. Statistics show exactly how severe this problem is.

1. According to the National Pet Alliance, 41% of the total cat population is stray.

2. The S.P.C.A. annually reports statistics of animals brought to their agency. Of the animals brought to the shelter, 64% are stray cats.

D. Many experts agree that spaying cats will directly result in a major reduction of stray and unwanted cats. I spoke with Lana Faye at the local S.P.C.A., who strongly agrees.

On June 12, 2000, I spoke with Lana, who said she could not stress the importance of spaying your animals enough, and especially cats, which reproduce at a higher rate than other domestic animals and also have a higher tendency to roam. According to Lana more cats are unwanted than stray, she claims more people bring in unwanted kittens, than the officers find strays roaming in neighborhoods. Lana believes that spaying domestic female cats can reduce the numbers both of unwanted and stray cats almost by 3/4. She claims the number of stray animals is so high, and increasing at such a high rate that without intervention, some areas will become infested with strays.

E. Leaving your cat un-spayed is like condemning yourself to live in a roach infested environment.

1. People are willing to pay for pest control to avoid this unhealthy lifestyle. No one would want roaches procreating to the point of infestation.

2. Similarly, if people do not spay their cats it will eventually lead to severe overpopulation, which would leave us outnumbered. We would be left to comply with the environment created by stray cats.

1. All the dirty, mangy, diseased stray cats living in our neighborhoods, were probably once cute little kittens someone did not want to take the responsibility for, just by spaying their cat.

2. We must do, as Bob Barker of The Price is Right always asks, “Help control the pet population, have your pet spayed or neutered.”

3. If you only want one cat, please have it spayed, so everyone else does not have to care for the remaining 419,000.

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