AIBU to ask why people don’t neuter their cats?

[Twotailed]

There are only 35 Scottish Wildcats left on this planet. 35. And it’s almost entirely down to interbreeding with unneutered domestic cat species. These beautiful animals will likely be gone within the next few years because of this.

And quite apart from that, cat shelters across the country are overflowing with unwanted kittens desperately needing homes.

So why - WHY? - are there so many unneutered cats on the streets? My mother’s neighbour has let her cat birth 8 litters of kittens, all in highland Perthshire. Every farm around them has handfuls of semi-feral cats constantly birthing kittens. Every newspaper has advertisements about litters of cats needing homes.

Why, why, why don’t people neuter? You don’t even have to pay for it if you can’t afford it! It makes me so furious!

Lots of people are irresponsible pet owners. Infuriates me.
Neutering should be compulsory unless you are a licensed breeder.

People are lazy & don’t think of the consequences. Others breed to sell. There should be a licence to breed pets, hate seeing pages of animals on gumtree etc when it’s clearly someone who wants to make money with no thought of the animals.

Yeh it’s very annoying and irresponsible. We have our two (neutered) cats because their mums owner took her to be spayed and discovered she was pregnant. At least she was done after that.

Because many people who call themselves animal lovers are anything but.

People should definitely neuter (apart from licenced breeders of course). There's so many unwanted cats in need of homes, that don't end up getting adopted

Because they don’t use their brains to see the bigger picture.

We've had 4 boy cats from kittens, and they're not allowed out until chipped and snipped

I agree that you should have to have a licence to breed, and very heavy penalties if you don’t. I love my two moggies to death but there’s enough of them floating around unloved and uncared for that we clearly don’t need to be breeding more! It’s so true that so many ‘animal lovers’ are totally unwilling to take responsibility and actually act in the best interests of animals.

I've met people who think it's "cruel" to neuter male pets, and male dog owners who seem to associate their male dog's testicles with their own, and neutering a pet as affecting their own masculinity. They can also overly attribute human emotions to the pets, and relate neutering to how THEY would feel about it happening to them.

I remember seeing a "Bondi Vet" episode a few years ago where the only way a dog owner's partner would accept the dog being neutered was if they gave him fake balls so he looked entire .

We have at least 2 entire male cats in my neighbourhood. One used to beat up all the other local cats and spray all over gardens. then the new one moved in and spent the first couple of months claiming his territory by yowling up & down the road & gardens for hours every day, and hissing/growling at the other local cats. He also sprays gardens, walls, fences and even doorways. They are one of the reasons why I have indoor only cats (both neutered of course).

We have our cat because his mum escaped out of an upstairs window the week before her spaying appointment at six months while his owner was on holiday and they had a cat sitter, we kept ours in until after he was neutered. It is highly irresponsible, but you also have lots of pet owners with no insurance, who feed their animals the cheapest nastiest food you can get, don't vaccinate, deflea, deworm etc. I think it should be more difficult to own an animal than it is, some kind of licensing system where all of the above plus microchipping are compulsory

I know someone who thinks that it's cruel to deny animas the "joy of motherhood"

Bur I once got suspended for a week when I lost my temper a bit about faux animal lovers, so I'd better shut up and go somewhere less controversial- FWR maybe? [fein[

I agree neutering should be compulsory unless breeding....and then a licence should be needed.

I lost respect for a friend whose year old cat had kittens....she'd had plenty long enough to neuter her.

It would be very difficult to police though and would probably end up with lots of drowned kittens so people weren't found out.

It’s much worse than not neutering. Lots of people won’t any for catteries so they dump their cats in the countryside when they go away, to ‘fend for themselves’ which translates as starve to death in the winter. My father trapped 23 abandoned cats on his farm (near the motorway) in the last 3 years. The nspcc and cats protection league take them and the cycle continues. Heartbreaking.

We're looking at getting a dog and the breeder I most like the look of does all vaccinations and neutering before they sell the pups. On their website it says this is non negotiable (clearly they've been challenged on it) and they explain that early neutering is not harmful to the dogs (not sure about cats)

So in an ideal world you'd need a license to breed and you must vaccinate and neuter the animals before selling them unless it's another licensed breeder buying. I'd also like people to have licenses to own cats and dogs tbh.

Early neutering can be harmful to dogs and I wouldn’t be buying from anybody who was neutering that young . I don’t know the answer with cats I think it’s because there are far too many feckless animal owners about who think they can make a few quid out of a litter and don’t really care about the animals .

I was looking after my MIL prize winning, champion Birman whilst she was on holiday. This is a cat whose kittens go for ridiculous amounts of money and they have a waiting list for people who want them.

I left the bathroom window open and she got out when she was calling and got knocked up by the local Tom cat

You can imagine how that went down.

@Floralnomad vets now think that neutering at 8 weeks is perfectly fine. At least with the breeds of dogs I've been looking at, can't claim to know about others. The breeder is a veterinarian and I've spoken to others.

The fact that the breeder is a vet doesn’t make it right , out of interest what breed is it ?

A friend of mine said she didn’t want to neuter her female cat because she didn’t want to deprive her of the fulfilment of being a mother 🙄

Idiot.

People are morons, that's why. They are the ones that shouldn't be having children themselves, let alone breeding animals.

Different animal, but my horse I think was originally planned to be kept as a stallion for breeding purposes. I can only assume his breeder changed her mind after finding out how much of a prat he is around mares because he was definitely gelded late. I have to keep him on a supplement to reduce his hormones for most of the year so that he won't jump on top of the other horses. But I wouldn't have this problem if he had been gelded at the right time. Try stopping a 600kg horse that's found an in heat mare. That's not fun.

A friend of mine said she didn’t want to neuter her female cat because she didn’t want to deprive her of the fulfilment of being a mother

My mum said the exact same thing. Wouldnt neuter because she wants her cat to be a mother. Bloody ridiculous.

Because people are lazy and irresponsible.

They CBA to get their pet neutered, chipped, and regularly vaccinated.

Because people buy kittens for cheap or as good as, and can't afford to neuter them.

I hate seeing kittens free to a good home.

If you look after a cat properly it can be quite expensive what with neutering, microchipping, insurances.

People should be charged £50 for a kitten. If they cant afford that, they cant afford a cat.

For owners of male kittens & cats there are no kittens to worry about

I had an ugly public row with dp in the vets waiting room many years ago when we got our first pet a girl jack Russell, the vet did the first checks and as I was paying the receptionist I went to book a spaying and he butted in saying it was cruel and he was putting his foot down . I proper flew of the handle, people were looking at the floor or shuffling away.

We got a new cat last September, he booked her jabs and spaying without any comment as he has done for all pets these last 16 years