Question by cat lover
Taylor
Ok, well I have an 8 month old male cat. He's seriously one of the best things that has ever happened to me!
Lately i've been reading around yahoo answers about cat neutering and everyone is acting like it's normal. I believe it's absolutely terrible! Why should we be allowed to strip an animal of it's ability to reproduce?
We shouldn't have the right to decide to be honest. God created animals, so why should we have the right to do tis to them!?
Just the image of snipping my poor kitty's balls makes me shudder! I seriously have no idea why everyone is ok with this?
I'm not one of those crazy people who likes to start arguments. I'm genuinely confused!
The only reason I would want my kitty to be neutered is so that theres less chance of him running away. As I don't keep my kitten in doors, he's free to run in and out as he likes. It's not natural to force your cat to stay in doors, they've been given amazing hearing, smell and vision for a reason! However I'm really worried he'll get run over by a car or even run away!
What should I do!?
(sorry if I have offended anyone, this is a genuine question!)
Answer by Animal lover
...thats why millions of animals are being killed in shelters and dieing on the streets because of people who think like you do. how many do you want to die???? they are asleep when it happens. come on. SPAY/NEUTER YOU PETS!!!!! do research and just dont think its "cruel" please.
Answer by B
I believe you should do whatever you believe in, if you don't want him to be snipped then that's cool, and maybe you should keep him in doors if you don't want to worry about him getting hurt
Answer by taamuli
I agree with Animal Lover, completely.
Also, I personally think that you are not looking at the big picture. Cats were domesticated by humans, to be pets. This is not a natural process. Nature did not make domesticated cats the way that they are. We did, so that we could have animal companions. If you are uncomfortable with spaying/neutering because it is "unnatural", you should equally be uncomfortable with having a pet in the first place, as that is "unnatural". If you choose to take a pet, you should be responsible for that pet, and any kittens that you allow that pet to create because you felt that spaying/neutering was cruel, which will be a lot. If you are not prepared to do that, you should spay/neuter your cat.
Answer by Linda G
It's not only normal, but imperative, to neuter a cat. It is our right and obligation to do this for the health of the animal. It's extremely selfish not to. Cats don't need to mate. Mating shortens their lifespan. Sounds like you have a lot of research to do. Stop personalizing so much -- you're not the one who's being neutered. For you to let your kitty get all the way to 8 months without neutering is very cruel.
As for your contention that it's not natural to keep your cat indoors, that's a ridiculous statement. Domestic cats allowed to run wild are a public health nuisance and are more likely to be killed accidentally. You're right to be worried. Your cat could eat snail poison in someone's yard and die a horrific death from liver or kidney failure just from your naivete. Wild cats don't live in the surburbs and cities; domestic cats do. And domestic cats must stay inside. I hate when neighbor cats poop in my yard and ruin my gardens. Their owners don't deserve to have them when they're so irresponsible. What if my exterminator gasses them accidentally while he's spraying for pests? Not my fault. It's the owners' fault. Poor cats. Have you ever swerved in your car to avoid hitting a cat and hit a person instead? All because some stupid fool let their cat outside?
Do you honestly think it's best for you to expose your kitty to the real probability of knocking up neighborhood cats, getting hit by a car trying to get to them, and knowing most or all of those babies are going to be killed?
Answer by Lisa
Get your kitty neutered, keep him inside. If you can't do that, give him to a proper owner.
If you neuter your cat, it will keep him from fighting with other male cats and keep the vet bills down. Also intact cats are more apt to get FIV infection from coming into contact with other cats by fighting. Neutered cats pretty much stay home where they belong. You should also think about keeping your cat indoors, they live longer. Lifespan for indoor/outdoor cat is about 4 yrs average. Lifespan for strictly indoor cats 12-18 years or more. Cats who have a tendency to be outside live short, brutish, cruel lives (fighting, being hit by cars, killed by dogs, poisoning by stupid people, being eaten by outside critters (skunks, raccoons, foxes, coyotes, cougars, etc). Please get the cat neutered, he will have a happier life and you will have him longer.
Answer by Lexa
Keeping animals from reproducing willy-nilly is CRUEL???
Have you seen the statistics on how many animals DIE every year simply because the shelters are full? One cat, getting pregnant with a litter of 4-6 kittens every 5 months over most of her lifetime can breed 700 cats by herself. Each of her female offspring are able to create the same number of children. Where are they all going to go? Who's going to feed them?
EVERY stray cat you see on the street, starving, got there by either being born there, or being thrown out of a home when the humans got tired of them. They aren't there picking thru your garbage for food because they like it!
I live in Phoenix AZ and we have a real stray ("feral") problem. The shelters are full, and they kill 3000 (yes, 3 THOUSAND) cats PER DAY from May - Sept here. That's how many cats we have. In addition, breeding animals get into fights as unneutered toms fight for breeding rights to females in heat. My neighbor has a cat door in her back door, and recently a stray female in heat ran thru the door INTO HER HOUSE in the middle of the night. She was followed by 2 unneutered males in the middle of a cat fight, vying for her attention. My neighbor has 2 cats of her own, and they got caught in the fight trying to escape the intruders. She ended up with a $500 ER bill for the cat bites and antibiotics she sustained trying to rescue HER cats from the strays, and get them out of her house!
Is that Responsible?
You say "the only reason I want my cat neutered " is to lessen the chance of him running away. NOT NEUTERING IS THE NUMBER 1 REASON CATS LEAVE THE HOME, because an unneutered male can smell the scent of a female in heat from MILES away, and will respond to it with aggressiveness, territorial marking (ie spraying urine in your house), and leaving the territory to find that female.
Cats aren't stupid, they aren't about to get near a car. I have 4 indoor-outdoor cats, up to 6 years old, and NONE has ever been injured outside. I live in a corner house with roads on both sides, no injuries, no "running away". A man with 3 big dogs live next door, the cats aren't dumb enough to go over there.
Also, for your information, they do NOT remove the testicles, they just snip the vas deferens, just like in a human vasectomy -- this eliminates the ability to pass semen thru the penis and greatly lowers their testosterone levels -- nothing else. The most recent addition to my family, a female stray about a year old, went into heat after gaining enough weight (from eating real food regularly) to not look like she was starving to death. She gained 5 pounds, went into heat, and my 2 male NEUTERED cats tried to get her pregnant anyway. They don't forget how to do it. They are simply unable to move sperm out of their bodies.
Hope I helped with the confusion.
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