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 Stinky Cat Owner
Posts: 4097
 
Location: Oregon | This is one topic that makes my blood boil – not getting your pets spayed and/or neutered! It breaks my heart to know that there are thousands of unwanted pets sitting in shelters either waiting to be adopted or scheduled to die because of people’s irresponsible pet ownership. If you can’t afford all the costs and care required of a dog, cat, horse, kid – don’t have them! And backyard breeders that breed so they can have extra money to _____________ (fill in the blank) – arrrggggg!! We don’t need your made up ‘designer’ dogs – they are MUTTS people!! Ok, sorry for the rant. lol
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 Accident Prone
Posts: 22277
 
Location: 100 miles from Nowhere, AR | 3canstorun - 2016-05-24 12:39 PM Three 4 Luck - 2016-05-24 1:30 PM Everything that sets foot on my place gets fixed, whether it belongs to me or not. 
Not unless they kill or try to kill something I'm fond of. I take my animals to the good vet, but the others go to the shelter vet who does them cheaper. |
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 Expert
Posts: 2097
Location: Deep South | Everything I own is spayed/neutered/gelded/etc. This is a cause I believe in, therefore we do not breed. Our dogs are all rescues, and I have bought quite a few horses out of a bad situation.
When it comes to people not spaying/neutering their cats/dogs I definitely think it's due to cost. At least in my area, vets charge a fortune for it. Would every single pet owner run their animals to the clinic if it was a free service? I doubt it. But I certainly think it's the biggest deciding factor for most people where I live.
From what I've seen with horse owners, most of the time it's ignorance. They truly have no idea that they are contributing to such a huge overpopulation problem when they breed their favorite grade mare of all time that is sway-backed, club-footed, HYPP positive and so good with kids and won them 14 ribbons last year. They have no clue that kill pens are shipping out unwanted horses by the truck load and that overbreeding is to blame.
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 678
Location: Canada | All our pets are spayed and our two Great Dane puppies will be neutered when they turn 18 months (breeder requires we wait till at least 18 months old). Our great dane puppies are almost $1200 to neuter when it's time. That price is insane but it's a necessary part of owning a dog.
Where I live there are so many Sheppard/Rotti or Sheppard/Husky puppies for adoption and many of them are coming off the Reserves. Another thing there is so many of is the "designer" mutts where people are crossing dogs and coming up with cute breed name for the resulting puppies. Lots of them are ending up in the shelters because they have so many health issues the owners just can't afford to keep them.
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 Good Grief!
Posts: 6343
Location: Cap'n Joan Rotgut.....alberta | Everything i have is fixed..except my female aussie....and up here there is no such thing as low cost spay/neuter. ...my mini is gonna be in the 500 to 600 range when i take her....my mom just had a boxer cross dumped at her place and she definatly doesnt need it....m
Edited by mruggles 2016-05-24 1:36 PM
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  Damn Yankee
Posts: 12390
Location: Somewhere between raising hell and Amazing Grace | I do think some vets charge outrageous prices to spay/neuter....... |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 1037
| Mine are all fixed except one, but she has a blood disorder that keeps her from having the surgery. |
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 Regular
Posts: 54
| Let me know when there are no more "rescues" of foreign animals flown here to find homes for. |
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 Expert
Posts: 3815
Location: The best kept secret in TX | I'm a shelter bum.... I love my shelter dogs. Biggest hearts in the world.
Remember: "You may not have your dog your entire life but to a dog, you're his whole life."
Plus they look super cute when they get old and get a grey muzzle  |
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Location: South Dakota | My New Years resolution this year was to get our 10 female barn cats spayed....Mission Accomplished! YAY!!!!!
Our female dogs are spayed as well, and it bugs me totally that people insist on buying a dog, sometimes for huge amounts of money, instead of going to their local humane society and giving a wonderful animal a forever home. Shelter animals rock!!!! |
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 Own It and Move On
Location: The edge of no where | txbredbr - 2016-05-24 12:42 PM We took 2 rescues from a fencing company 2 years ago- took to my vet and was really caught off guard with the cost - 1 female, not pregnant and 1 male and it was over $150 (can't remember exactly).
Last Summer when it flooded in TX, we rescued 2 more kittens - my husband works in Gainesville and says that cats are like roaches in that town - they run all OVER the place. I searched and searched for low cost for several months and kept missing the scheduled days - I couldn't afford our vet, again- found one that opened May 7 and was so excited about $35 and $45 until reading about all the additional costs that was going to put it well over $100 - mandatory extra $5 for the pain shot - and then ecollar, rabies, etc.
I scheduled a month in advance and after waiting in line for about 45 minutes, at the counter, I did get a surprise of a grand opening special of $20 per animal and free rabies - I just had to pay extra for the pain shots.
But stil - after the grand opening that low cost clinic isn't very low cost!! -- they do have the feral program, but they clip their ear, so we didn't want that for our house kitties, even though we could have left them in Gainesville.
I have 3 kitties from the feral cat program in Weatherford that's thru the shelter. We LOVE them. I don't know why one of them was in there, she's like my 3rd dog. Negs thinks that her ear notch just gives her character.
I'm not sure how they do it, but you can get barn kitties for free that are already fixed and have their rabies. |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 929
| LAC - 2016-05-24 10:07 AM
In my opinion a lot of people do not spay or neuter their pets due to the cost. Yes, there are spay and neuter clinics out there but for many you have to qualify under their income guidelines. It's nice to say that if you cannot afford the vet bill then don't buy the pet but this would only happen in a perfect world...
We are lucky that in our area we do have a spay neuter clinic that does them for a lower cost no matter what your income level is but not many people are aware that this program is out there. I only knew because my daughter worked for a shelter at the time and it was where they sent all of theirs to.
it cost me $200 to geld my stud. It costs $485 to neuter a cattle dog. A lot of people do not see how that is a good deal. (Spare me all the vetspeak...I used to be a tech in a former life-) But when the general public prices those two things out and it is less to do surgery on a horse...many folks fail to see the value in that, regardless of how you try to put the spin on the medical estimate. |
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Expert
Posts: 1549
Location: Southwest Louisiana | I've posted on here before about my barn cats. (I didn't have any when we moved here, they were dropped off/just moved in/wild). I'm a huge fan of spay/neuter everything - horses, dogs, cats, even our goats are fixed! lol. But at one point, there were 2 dozen cats running around out here. Some I could catch, some I couldn't.
I called my vet that fixed the dogs (Great Pyrs - $150 for male and female). It's $120 per cat. They wouldnt do any kind of discount. Now, we aren't struggling to feed ourselves, but we don't have an extra $2880 laying around to fix some wild barn cats. There is only one low-cost place around here (45 minutes from me). Took 3 female cats in to get them spayed (they knew how many I had, but said they'd do them 3 at a time).
Less than one week later, all of those cats died from feline panleukopenia (cat distemper - extemely contagious). None of the other cats we had here were ever sick. These three all died and then at least one cat per day died after that. We ended up with only 8 cats left, because I got vaccines from my regular vet to give them. Only the 8 that I vaccinated lived. The others, who were healthy otherwise, all had the same exact symptoms and died.
I'm assuming they picked it up from the vet's office. Maybe that was their way of cutting down the cat population and not having to spay them for cheap? Never mentioned anything about vaccinating them or anything. But it was upsetting. I don't like cats and never had any, other than one inside cat a long time ago, who went in for yearly shots and died of old age when I was young. I honestly didn't know this virus existed or I'd have given shots a long time ago. Well, to the ones I could catch or trap.
Edited by Rocket'sMagicGirl 2016-05-24 5:10 PM
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 Expert
Posts: 1718
Location: Southeast Louisiana | I don't think we will see a huge difference in pet overpopulation until it starts to cost the` irresponsible owners. The city of New Orleans passed a law where you either have to purchase a yearly license for unaltered pets or face a fine. It really is out of control in the city and I was glad to see them being proactive about it. Too bad the rest of the state hasn't done the same. |
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 Shelter Dog Lover
Posts: 10277
| I spay everything, that said I just found a litter of 3 kittens from a wild cat that I did not know was living in my hay barn, trapped the momma-has an appointment next week and have found homes for the kittens. I tell you though, I don't like spending 100+ on wild cats but I do it. |
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 Warrior Mom
Posts: 4400
| I live in a very rural area, so people are constantly dumping animals out here. It's really sad. The crummy part is, we cannot take the dogs or cats to the shelter in town, since we live in a different county. 1 shelter in town might take one but it costs us $55 "surrender fee" .... just what I want, have to pay a surrender fee for someone else's pet that they decided to dump near my house! All the cats that show up are usually Tom cats, I had 1 female cat and she got pregnant, waiting for her to have her kittens then she's going to get fixed! She's inside and staying inside from now on. She got snake bit twice and survived it but walks with a limp. I'll have her kittens fixed too and let them have the run of the barn and property since majority of the cats have disappeared out here due to coyotes or snakes. |
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 Warmblood with Wings
Posts: 27846
Location: Florida.. | I have found in the rural areas that some people just dont care.. Theyd rather not worry about it nor spend the $$..
Also with breeders that mix 2 breeds...call it something fancy... is BS.... its MUTTS i agree..
with breeders I will keep my mouth shut due to I know alot of them .. I absolutely feel though that the low cost spay clinics have helped.. but the people need to get off their arse and take them..
most wont bother ..
to not pay to do it is irresponsible.. but the price is high in some areas.. I think a flat rate for ALL income levels is best..
let the animal go and get it done with or without shots being done at same time.. yes they need shots but for some its impossible to pay 160 for shots then on top of that 300 for spaying.. so let them do it anyway.. solutions is what we need.. we have great programs here but people have to use them.. some do ... and with ferals I agree trap and release is best..
Strays need fixed.. I know people dont want to pay to do it for them.. Havent figured that out solution to that yet. I know some say due to health concerns they wait til they are 2.. I call BS.. the shelter surrender fee had to be put in place.. but its a double edged sword.. well triple....
people want No kill.. but they want to take any or all pets there.. its impossible for shelters to handle that.. so people dump them.. instead.. we have animal control that is kill and will accept animals no fee..
with the overload of animals... its not the shelters fault..
Edited by Bibliafarm 2016-05-25 8:44 AM
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Warrior Mom
Posts: 4400
| Low cost spay or nueter out here is $65 plus a rabies shot which is $15 (which is mandatory ) there is one program that offers free spay or nueter they are mobile BUT you have to reside in a certain county to qualify. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 705
Location: Weatherford, TX | MS2011 - 2016-05-24 4:03 PM txbredbr - 2016-05-24 12:42 PM We took 2 rescues from a fencing company 2 years ago- took to my vet and was really caught off guard with the cost - 1 female, not pregnant and 1 male and it was over $150 (can't remember exactly).
Last Summer when it flooded in TX, we rescued 2 more kittens - my husband works in Gainesville and says that cats are like roaches in that town - they run all OVER the place. I searched and searched for low cost for several months and kept missing the scheduled days - I couldn't afford our vet, again- found one that opened May 7 and was so excited about $35 and $45 until reading about all the additional costs that was going to put it well over $100 - mandatory extra $5 for the pain shot - and then ecollar, rabies, etc.
I scheduled a month in advance and after waiting in line for about 45 minutes, at the counter, I did get a surprise of a grand opening special of $20 per animal and free rabies - I just had to pay extra for the pain shots.
But stil - after the grand opening that low cost clinic isn't very low cost!! -- they do have the feral program, but they clip their ear, so we didn't want that for our house kitties, even though we could have left them in Gainesville.
I have 3 kitties from the feral cat program in Weatherford that's thru the shelter. We LOVE them. I don't know why one of them was in there, she's like my 3rd dog. Negs thinks that her ear notch just gives her character.
I'm not sure how they do it, but you can get barn kitties for free that are already fixed and have their rabies.
Weatherford Animal Control ROCKS! They have a barn cat program. It is great. We have had them spay/neuter feral cats and then turned them into barn cats. The Weatherford Animal Control really is remarkable.  |
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BHW's Simon Cowell
Location: The Saudia Arabia of Wind Energy, Western Oklahoma | The cat distemper sounds like what I need at my house. I can't stand to get rid of them but feeding them is getting to be too much for me. I am looking into a free feral cat spay program in OKC. None of the cats we have were ours. Don't mind having a few cats around but it is out of hand at my place. |
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