This is great news that we can all be proud of. But the fight isn’t over. I can’t wait to see what the next 5 or 10 years bring. Hopefully, if we all work hard, we’ll be able to see it hit under a million or even less.
And maybe, one day, it will be a thing of the past.
— Kenn Bell, Dog Files Creator
When Stephen Zawistowski got his first dog 50 years ago, she was the only dog in the neighborhood that was spayed.
“She had an incision that must have been a foot long and was sewn up with what looked like piano wire,” says Zawistowski, science adviser for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
Nowadays, the procedure involves making a one- or two-inch incision and using self-absorbing sutures which means a much quicker recovery for the animal.
Today, spaying and neutering has become the law in some states, counties and cities. Many states require all shelter animals to be sterilized. Rhode Island requires most cats to be sterilized, and Los Angeles requires most dogs and cats to be spayed or neutered by the time they are 4 months old.
To get to this point however, it took years of campaigning to change pet owners’ thinking about sterilizing pets.
As Zawistowski explains: “When pets are sterilized, their reproductive organs are removed so they can no longer breed. Some people consider that unnecessary mutilation of their pets. There are those who say: “You won’t do that to my dog because I wouldn’t want it done to me.”
But the sterilization of pets has actually saved lives. This year fewer than 4 million unwanted dogs and cats will be euthanized, down from as many as 20 million before 1970. And animal experts believe spaying and neutering has played the biggest role in saving so many lives as the procedure can make pets easier to manage, less aggressive and healthier.
The next step in cat and dog sterilization may be in the form of an affordable pill, implant or vaccine.
Dr. Gary Michelson, a billionaire orthopedic spinal surgeon and founder of Found Animals, posted a $25 million prize in 2008 for the creator of such an affordable chemical sterilant that works in male and female cats and dogs.
In 2003, the Food and Drug Administration approved the first sterilant for male dogs. But at about $50 a shot, Neutersol was too costly. It was then reworked, the price was cut to about $6 a dose and it was again approved by the FDA under the name Esterilsol.
Esterilsol has been used in trials around the world and is expected to be available in the United States later this year.
Good news but they are not euthanized, they are killed. Euthanization ends suffering due to pain and illness. These dogs do not have that, they just don’t have homes. Would you just stop misusing that word. I am amazed at how much it is used instead of what is really going on which is dogs being killed because there are so many and too often (as in Memphis) shelters are not caring and responsible enough
I used to say kill, now I pay attention to what situation I am speaking of. There are many facilities that gas and do heartstick or worse. Many that have no choice but to PTS animals that come thru the doors of open admission facilities. I hate it with a passion, but I have gotten involved and educated myself more on the system. I volunteer & foster for a facility that euth sick, very bad temperment and sometimes due to lack of space. I say euth, not kill because I know that the process at this facility is done in a very respectful and extremly humane way.Summer the intake more than doubles & triples. The staff work so hard and tirelessly to get the animals moved to homes, rescues and programs for training.I know that no matter what animal is faced with this very unfair death that they are loved and handled with so much care. They are cried for and we mourn them. Everything possible is done to save them. Programs are being implimented to try to rehab some of the temperment cases and they try hard not to label an animal, but to eval.them. I pray fro the day that everyone believes in being a responsible pet owner and we can put shelters out of business for good. We know that will never happen. So where do these animals go. Running at large to reproduce, form packs and spread disease. Living on trash or attaching other pets or children. Getting hit by cars, shot by farmers and it goes on. All because they have no home and a loving human to care for them. Spay and neuter!!!!
its so sad that any animal has to be killed because they cant find a home and someone to love them
thanks for all your help finding answers and helping these innocent animals..sometimes less is more..:)
I’m so glad to see the numbers have gone down, And if every pet is fixed, could you imagine? There would be a lot less animals needing care in shelters so taxes could go down (our local shelter is helped in part by our town and county taxes). Availability of a dog or cat would be less so people might have to put some serious money and THOUGHT into actually taking better care of the pets they have instead of treating them as if they were disposable. Currently if you look at your average online buy or sell ad’s dogs and cats are treated as if they were an old TV rather than a cherished part of the family.
Some parts of the country are better at spay/neuter than others, too. The south lags behind in both spay/neuter, and in their general attitudes about the way dogs should be kept. Far too many dogs are kept outdoors all the time, never socialized or house trained, which makes it harder for them to find homes. If people would just spay and neuter, socialize and train their dogs as PUPPIES (and no, your dog is NOT still a puppy at 8 months of age – it’s an adolescent – think “doggy teenager”) then more dogs would keep their homes, and the ones that didn’t would be much easier to adopt.