Spaying or neutering your cats, dogs, and other animal companions has never been more important. The homeless-animal crisis in the UK has sky-rocketed following ill-advised lockdown puppy purchasing and the ensuing cost-of-living crisis, and the RSPCA reported a 51% increase in abandoned animals in England and Wales between 2021 and 2023. Sterilisation is the key to tackling animal homelessness, and it holds numerous benefits for your animal companion and you, too.

Here are five reasons spaying or neutering a cat or dog is essential:

1. Spaying and Neutering Is Better for Their Health

Spaying and neutering are routine surgeries that improve animals’ health. Spaying a dog or cat avoids the stress and discomfort females endure during heat periods. It eliminates the risk of ovarian and uterine cancer and infections of the uterus, such as pyometra, and dramatically reduces the risk of mammary cancer. A spayed dog or cat will also suffer from fewer urinary tract infections.

Neutering prevents testicular cancer and reduces the risk of prostate problems, perianal tumours, and hernias.

Sterilised animals live longer, happier lives and are less likely to contract deadly, contagious diseases, such as feline AIDS and feline leukaemia, which are spread through bodily fluids, or canine transmissible venereal tumours and brucellosis in dogs.

Treating such diseases results in veterinary bills much higher than the cost to neuter a dog or cat, and sterilised animals may cost less to insure.

2. Sterilisation Reduces Unwanted Behaviour

Sterilisation doesn’t affect animals’ energy levels or change their personalities but can reduce unwanted behaviour.

Spaying a dog or cat means they won’t endure the anxiety their season can cause. Cats especially show their discomfort while in heat, becoming restless and vocal, and they may urinate outside the litter box as well as bleed.

Neutered male dogs and cats are less likely to roam, fight, or mark their territory with urine – and their urine will smell less noxious. The tendency to make inappropriate sexual approaches, such as humping or biting humans or objects, will also reduce.

3. It Avoids Nasty Surprises

Not only can failing to sterilise animals lead to unexpected and unwanted litters – which amounts to much more in veterinary bills, food, training, and time than the cost to neuter a dog or cat – it also makes your cat or dog more appealing to thieves. Even if you don’t intend to exploit your animal companion for breeding, they could get lost or be abducted: 20% of dog guardians and 30% of cat guardians report having had an animal go missing – that’s a total of 5.5 million people. Sterilised animals are less likely to run off or be stolen because they can’t be used for breeding.

4. It Prevents Suffering

Not all owners caught out with a litter rehome the animals to people they know and trust or hand them over to a reputable animal shelter, which is always the best thing to do, even though they’re already overburdened. Not spaying or neutering can lead to horrible deaths, as some try to kill baby animals by drowning or suffocating them and throwing them out like rubbish. Many sell or give them away over social media, putting them at risk of abuse or neglect by cruel or irresponsible people. Others may abandon puppies and kittens on the streets or in rural areas.

Left to fend for themselves on the streets, homeless cats and dogs face dangers such as being hit by cars, succumbing to extreme temperatures, starving, contracting contagious diseases, and being attacked by other animals – including cruel humans, who may use them as bait in dog fights or exploit them as breeding machines for profit. Many of them are poisoned, shot, drowned, mutilated, tortured, set on fire, or killed in other agonising ways.

All this misery and death could be prevented through spaying and neutering.

5. It Tackles the Homeless-Animal Crisis

Every stray cat and neglected dog came from an animal who wasn’t spayed or neutered.

Sterilising one animal prevents potentially hundreds of thousands more from being born into a life of suffering on the streets. Without spaying, one female dog and her offspring can produce up to 67,000 puppies in six years. In seven years, one unspayed female cat and her offspring can produce a staggering 370,000 kittens.

There are an estimated 1.6 million homeless cats and dogs in the UK, a number that’s increasing as more animals are accidentally and deliberately bred.

Even if someone can find homes for a litter of kittens or puppies, the overpopulation cycle continues if those animals reproduce. Each time a prospective guardian buys an animal from a breeder, a homeless one loses a chance of a loving home.

It’s the Responsible Thing to Do

Given the benefits for the individual animal, the suffering that can be prevented, and the desperate need to tackle the homeless-animal crisis, sterilisation is the only responsible thing to do.

Do the Right Thing for Your Animal Companion

Please, be sure to spay or neuter your animal companion for their own health and to avoid contributing to the overpopulation crisis. And if you’re planning to welcome an animal into your home, never buy from a breeder or seller. If you have the resources, time, and patience to commit to providing an animal with all the care they need for their entire life, adopt – don’t shop.