I never got him fixed

[Istaqa]

I didnt want to derail Thorns thread or detract from her serious question but i feel strongly enough about the problem that i wanted to reply.

I never got him fixed because I think it's unnatural and cruel

A short trip to the vet early in life causes no harm and saves the suffering of countless puppies / kittens dumped , drowned or left to be put down at shelters.

Domestication is of its self unnatural. Animals breed for countlesss generations not to develop normal adult behaviours so they remain trusting and affectionate through out their lives.

That aside I love my girls ( two chocolate burmesse ) but i have no intention of breeding them for the pet market so they are desexed. The same applied to Yoshi my male siamese who has passed away.
They are affectionate inquisitive wonderfull companions with out the worry of stray toms, fights and unplanned pregnancies.

With thousands of animals killed each year because they are "not wanted" please dont let your pets add to the problem.

NB: I realise this may be a little off topic for the boards though i feel it has a place in the animal forum

[Sobek]

i agree with you. de-sexing can save alot of problems in future, especially with cats, just like if you have a male and let it out, who know's how many females wind up pregnant as a result. Then, as always, it comes down to whole moral debate.

[Shadow]

I am sure I have also read somewhere that you can increase your cats life by having them fixed. My sisters cat had quite a few litters before she got her done and she always looked so skinny and unwell, now she has filled out and looks the piller of health. I think a responsible owner, who doesn't plan to become a breeder, should be getting there animals fixed.

[Sobek]

question: Why is it that people use the term "fix"?

fixing, implies there is something wrong with them.

[Sercee]

It might stem from the idea that when a cat goes into heat they sound broken. It's horrifying sometimes how much noise they make. So you 'fix' it so you don't go insane.

Also, fix doesn't necessesarily mean repair... it can be synonymous with 'glue', as in you're fixing something in place so it doesn't move or change.

[[ForestWitch]]

I very much agree that there is nothing cruel or unnatural about neutering your cat. Here in Wisconsin, feral cats are a huge problem in some areas - to the point that there's been an ongoing debate about whether it should be legal to hunt feral cats. While that's a horrifying thought to me, I understand why people want to be able to do it. Feral cats are not healthy animals living a free and natural life. Feral cats frequently die of malnutrition and/or a variety of feline diseases. Those same diseases are a threat to every domestic cat who goes outside in areas where feral cat colonies are common. Since there are few natural predators for feral cats in Wisconsin, there is nothing to control their population unless human beings hunt them. But, of course, as soon as feral cat hunting becomes legal and prevalent, every domestic cat who roams outdoors will be at risk for being shot by a hunter, too.

Every person who allows their unneutered cat to roam free in this area is a) contributing to a growing problem and b) risking having their cat contract disease since there are not reliable vaccinations for all the diseases that infect feral cat colonies.

Every one is entitled to their own opinion, of course, but mine is that it's flat-out irresponsible to allow unneutered domestic animals to roam free outdoors. Just because you don't have a feral cat problem in your area now doesn't mean you won't soon have one if enough people are irresponsible.

[Deirdre]

I have 2 cats, more than likely 3 soon...

I have one male cat, Nightmare, who was 'fixed' when he was 1 year old... I had him and his brother fixed for 2 main reasons:

The first reason was that I didn't want them to get female cats pregnant, since there are already so many cats that can not find a home, that I really don't want to contribute to the cat population... The other reason was that in my experience, male cats that aren't neutered tend to stray from home a lot further than cats that are neutered (I don't know how this works with females, since I always had male cats)

The other cat is Luna... she is a female, and she is almost one year old... I plan to have her neutered soon as well, since she went in to heat for the first time a little while back. The only reason why she hasn't been neutered yet, is because i haven't had the money to get it done yet... Right now i keep both cats inside, because i don't want to run the risk of luna getting pregnant, and i think it is unfair to let one cat out, and make the other one stay inside... So far they don't have a lot of problems with staying inside...

Sometime soon we will more than likely get another cat, also a male, who hasn't been neutered yet... The only reason why he is coming to live with us, is because his mothers owner hasn't been able to find a home for him yet, and she already has a lot of cats... Once he is used to living with us, he is going to be neutered as well, for the same reasons as i mentioned above...

[webbspinner]

They are recommending neutering cats by four months now. I have 4 I need done immediately. We are fortunate that we have low cost, and free clinics here. Believe me the males are as bad as the females, no they don't get PG, but they spray urine everywhere. Thanks for reminding me I need to get an appointment.->o<-

[Fanny]

I have a female cat, she is almost 4 years old, she got fix when she was arround 6 months, and Im glad I did it, at first I was debating it, since I thought how much I would love for her to be a mom, but then I thought how hard should it be for HER to get her kittens taking away from her , how traumatizing, plus there's enought cats that needs homes, there's no need for more, , and I talked to her vet that told me that by getting her fix, she's less likely to get ill by catching cancer and some other dissease etc..., witch was a good enought reason for me.
And my little one is as happy as can be

[[echolady]]

i have several kitties 9 altogether and 5 that now live with me ( the others stayed with my bf when i moved out ) I have had most of them fixed, i have 3 femals that need it, but femals are very exspensive, and mine don't go outside ever so mostly my concern is with there health. as soon as the money is there my kitties will be spayed.

cats are very proned to cancer, specially in those regions, having them fixed eliminates the possibilty of cancer in those areas. Also male cats do spray and tend to get nasty tempers if they are not fixed . Females tend to go batty.

Consider if they are not out in the wild making hundreds of babies ( male cats can make limtless numbers of kittens in a year simply they only need a supply of females, and i think females can produce something like 4 to 6 litters each a year with anywhere from 1-8 kittens each and then those kittens can begin breeding between 4-6 mths ect ) wether they are male or female not having them altered so to speak forces the animal to constantly be in a state of raised hormonesas they have no way to temp. relieve them . Consider being severally sexually frustrated for years at a time without ANY ability to do anything about it. That would drive anybody mad. removing these parts of the animals saves them years of frustration.

anywaz just my 2 cents