National Desexing Month

July is National Desexing Month and animal shelters across Victoria are offering pet owners a discount as incentive to have their pets desexed.

By Desexing your pet you are not only doing your bit to help eradicate over population of domestic cats and dogs which can ultimately lead to many unwanted and stray animals, but you also get to enjoy a number of physical and emotional benefits for pet.

By desexing your pet/s they:

• Are less likely to wander and fight; and therefore less likely to get lost or injured or display territorial behaviour such as cats spraying indoors.
• They are more likely to live longer and healthier lives.
• They have a reduced risk of diseases related to the reproductive organs such as testicular and prostate cancer in males, and cystic ovaries, acute uterine infections and mammary tumours in females.

Desexing eliminates “heat’ cycles in females which then eliminates the unwanted attentions of males from far a wide who are looking for a mate. Consequently this also decreases the number of stray and feral animals.

There are ofcourse a number of misconceptions associated with desexing dogs and cats which can hold owners back from Desexing their pets, these misconceptions need to be corrected, such as :

• Pets don’t get fat after desexing – poor diet and lack of exercise contribute weight gain, not desexing.
• It is not better for females to have one litter before desexing, this will actually increase the risk of mammary cancer.
• Dogs and cats do not have any concept of sexual identity or ego so desexing will not change their basic personality and male pets won’t feel less ‘manly’.

Desexing is the only way to address the extreme imbalance of adoptable pets to available homes, so we should all ensure we take responsibility for our pets and do the right thing.