It is very important to spay/neuter your pets. Pet overpopulation is a serious problem, and every dog and/or cat owner has a responsibility not to contribute to it. Please talk to a veterinarian about spaying/neutering your dog or cat NOW, or as soon as they are old enough.
Spaying/Neutering is a one time cost that is much cheaper than the overall cost of having a single litter. The surgery is safe. Depending on the procedure, it is over in a few days or less. Spayed/Neutered dogs and cats tend to live longer, healthier lives with less health problems, and eliminated or reduced chances of developing cancer. Spayed/Neutered dogs and cats also bite, run away, mark territory, and have temperament problems less often than other pets.
Having just one litter of puppies or kittens is too many. Including purebreads! One in four shelter dogs/cats is a purebread. If you can find homes for all of them, most won't still be there a year or two later. Even if you find good homes, that means more kittens and puppies in shelters won't get a chance. The animal shelters do their best, but they can't find good homes for all of the pets, and they can't take care of them all either.
More puppies and kittens than humans are born in the United States every year. Twelve million a year end up at animal shelters, and between four and six million are euthanized. (That's thousands of puppies and kittens being euthanized every day across the country.)
In six years, the average dog and her offspring can produce 67,000 puppies. The American Humane Association estimates that two cats (with averages of two litters a year, and 2.8 surviving kittens a litter) and thier offspring can produce the following number of kittens:
Do you really want to be responsible for over 80 million cats?
