Today is 21st annual World Spay Day
Today is World Spay Day, an annual campaign of The Humane Society of the United States, Humane Society International and the Humane Society Veterinary Medical Association.
It’s always the last Tuesday of every February, which is Spay/Neuter Awareness Month.
In addition to helping keep pet overpopulation down, spaying and neutering are known to help decrease pet health issues, such as cancer, and help pets live happier and healthier lives.
Heidi Ganahl, CEO and founder of Camp Bow Wow, a national pet care franchise, offered tips and helpful facts about the benefits of spaying/neutering pets.
•Help Fido live a healthy life: Pets who are spayed or neutered live longer lives. It is estimated that neutered males lives approximately 18 percent longer, and spayed females about 23 percent longer.
Spaying and neutering reduces the risk of certain types of cancers, such as uterine cancer in females and testicular or prostate cancer in males.
•Help the cause: In the United States alone, there are an estimated 6 to 8 million pets that are homeless and wind up in shelters every year. Sadly, not even half of these pets are adopted and the rest are euthanized.
By spaying or neutering your pet, you are ensuring that you are not adding to this statistic.
•It is well worth the cost: Many people feel that the cost of spaying and neutering is cost prohibitive, but there are local shelters and rescue groups who help families by providing low-cost spay and neuter clinics.
The costs of not spaying or neutering your animal can wind up costing much more in the long run if your pet has behavior issues (such as urine marking or destructiveness), or if your dog winds up with cancer.
•Myth busted: There are many myths about how spaying and neutering your dogs can change their behavior in ways that parents don’t want. A few myths about what will happen if you spay and neuter are your dog will become less protective, they will get fat and lazy, their personality will change, or they will feel like “less of a dog.”
These thoughts are false and belief in these myths perpetuates the number of homeless animals there are in the United States.
•Promote better behavior: When you have dogs that are not neutered, they are more likely to roam, can have higher instances of dog bites because of the amount of testosterone in their bodies and can display behaviors like urine marking, excessive barking and mounting.
Many of these behaviors can cause dogs to wind up in shelters due to behavior problems that get out of control.
Courtesy of news-press.com- Behavior (14)
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