I thought I'd throw my two cents into the ring. I work at an Animal Shelter that currently is housing around 75 cats and kittens (not to mention quite a few dogs as well). I've always been curious if those who breed their animals are oblivious to the statistics or truly don't care about the welfare of animals. Consider some of these facts released by the Humane Society of the United States:
-In seven years one female cat and her young can produce 420,000 kittens.
-Every day in the US, tens of thousands of puppies and kittens are born. Compare this to the 11,000 human births each day, and you can see that there can never be enough homes for all these pets.
-Spaying and neutering help pets live longer and healthier lives, and reduces the risk of health problems cats can develop including certain types of cancer.
I urge you, if you consider yourselves true cat lovers, think of why you breed. Sure, kittens are cute and purebreds are beautiful. But take a trip down to your local animal shelter and think of all of the cats and kittens that already are waiting for homes. Think of what might happen to them if someone chooses to adopt from you rather than take home an older less-than-purebred cat from the shelter. Can you live with the fact that one of your kitten's kittens might end up in a place like that - loved by staff but ignored by the public and forever denied a loving home? I don't mean to get preachy but it just seems to me that breeders don't seem to understand the large-scale long-term consequences of their actions. I would love to hear back from everyone who reads this - I am not closed minded and want to hear what you think of this. Although I would love to change minds please try to change mine as well. I'd love to get a discussion going.
Thank you for listening,
talula379
-In seven years one female cat and her young can produce 420,000 kittens.
-Every day in the US, tens of thousands of puppies and kittens are born. Compare this to the 11,000 human births each day, and you can see that there can never be enough homes for all these pets.
-Spaying and neutering help pets live longer and healthier lives, and reduces the risk of health problems cats can develop including certain types of cancer.
I urge you, if you consider yourselves true cat lovers, think of why you breed. Sure, kittens are cute and purebreds are beautiful. But take a trip down to your local animal shelter and think of all of the cats and kittens that already are waiting for homes. Think of what might happen to them if someone chooses to adopt from you rather than take home an older less-than-purebred cat from the shelter. Can you live with the fact that one of your kitten's kittens might end up in a place like that - loved by staff but ignored by the public and forever denied a loving home? I don't mean to get preachy but it just seems to me that breeders don't seem to understand the large-scale long-term consequences of their actions. I would love to hear back from everyone who reads this - I am not closed minded and want to hear what you think of this. Although I would love to change minds please try to change mine as well. I'd love to get a discussion going.
Thank you for listening,
talula379