According to the American Humane Association, only one in 10 of the 30 million puppies and kittens born annually find permanent homes. Approximately 35% of shelter animals are adopted; the rest, some 6 to 8 million annually, are euthanized. There are two main reasons for these tragic numbers:

1. Pet owners who do not sterilize their pet and contribute to wanton, ill-considered breeding

2. Pet owners who fail to make a lifetime commitment to their pets by training them or taking them with them when they move.

What are the advantages to sterilizing your pet? Female pets who are spayed are:

• Less likely to be aggressive
• Less likely to have heat cycles and soil carpets, rugs, and furniture
• Less likely to have mammary tumors, uterine cancer, breast cancer or ovarian cancer. Breast cancer is fatal in about 50% of dogs and 90% of cats.
• Less likely to exhibit annoying heat behaviors such as whining, crying, pacing, and frantic attempts to get outdoors.
• Less likely to develop pyometra, a condition where the uterus becomes infected and swells with pus. The treatment for pyometra requires overnight hospitalization, IV fluids, antibiotics and spaying the dog to make the uterus shrink. This can be quite expensive and painful for the dog.

Male pets who are neutered are:

• Less likely to be aggressive
• Less likely to attract unneutered males during their heat cycles who can spray urine around your home and yard.
• Less likely to be territorial and to roam to look for a mate (80% of dogs hit by cars are unneutered males)
• Less likely to exhibit annoying mating behaviors such as whining, crying, pacing, and frantic attempts to get outdoors.
• Less likely to mark your home and belongings
• Less likely to develop testicular cancer (the second worst disease for male dogs) and less likely to develop prostate cancer
• More likely to be focused on their owner due to the loss of an urge to mate, and more likely to focus on their owners and excel in training.
• Spayed and neutered pets are, in general, healthier, happier and easier to care for. You will save money in veterinary bills and in licensing fees. You can have the surgery done very cheaply as well with the assistance of the City of Los Angeles' Spay Neuter Voucher program

The city of Los Angeles has drastically reduced their voucher program for spay/neuter. If you cannot afford to spay/neuter your pets, call us and we will try to assist you in getting financial assistance.

Please contact your local city councilperson and let them know that people are concerned about cuts in this program. Public assistance for spay/neuter needs to be up and running again as soon as possible in order to help save the lives of our animal friends.

For spay/neuter financial services, please call 818-901-0190, x101

Common myths about spaying and neutering:

It will change my pet's personality. While sterilization has been shown to reduce aggression, particularly in males, it will not significantly change your pet's personality for the negative. If anything, pets who are sterilized tend to make the best companion animals as they are more focused on their owners and easier to train.

It will make my pet fat and lazy. Pets become fat and lazy due to inactivity and owners who do not provide them with enough exercise and/or too much food.

A neutered male won't protect me. While aggressiveness can be reduced by neutering, the dog's instinct to be protective of his family is not. While having a dog that is protective can be considered a positive, having a dog that is protective AND aggressive is not, and an invitation to lawsuits and human injury.

A female dog needs to have one litter before being spayed. There is no medical basis for this and in fact, the sooner you spay your dog, the healthier she will be. Spaying a dog before her first heat cycle provides the strongest protection against cancer and pyometra. The probability for developing tumors and cancer increase the longer a female dog is not spayed. Female dogs spayed before they reach sexual maturity (approximately 6 to 9 months of age) have one-seventh of the risk of developing mammary cancer has an unspayed dog.

Spaying or neutering a pet is dangerous. Sterilization is one of the most common surgeries performed by veterinary clinics. Most clinics will have your pet ready to go home the same day as the surgery. Your pet can be up and roaming around your house and behaving normally within a few days, or even within 24 hours depending on the pet.

Witnessing the miracle of birth is important for my children. You can teach your children about the miracle of life in many different ways, such as through books, videos, film, and discussion. Seeing your pet give birth to puppies or kittens who will end up dead for lack of good homes is a lesson no one should be teaching their children. You would be better off teaching them about the miracle of life, as well as compassion and responsibility, by helping them save a life by rescuing a dog or cat who otherwise would be euthanized because of lack of a home to go to.

127,000 Healthy, Playful Pets are killed in Los Angeles County every year! YOU can help!

Most people do not realize what an overwhelming pet overpopulation problem exists Los Angeles! Sure, many people know that animals die in shelters, but do they realize the true cause? Ignorance may be bliss, but it is ignorance that is killing these innocent, loving creatures.

• Only 1 in every 10 dogs born finds a permanent home!
• One 1 in every 12 cats born finds a permanent home!
• At any given time, there are approximately 40,000 strays wandering the streets.

The country's thousand of pounds and shelters are forced to kill millions of animals every year. EVERYDAY, the pounds and shelters have to kill and kill and kill in order to make room for the ones that will flood them that day, all because pet owners don't think or don't care.

It's the same old story. "We couldn't get rid of our litter," the people say. "You can find good homes for them, can't you?" The shelter workers at the desk nearly always respond: "Oh, yes, we can find good homes for them," knowing in their hearts they will be put to sleep. A sad way for a new puppy or kitten to start off life and a sad way for their lives to end.

There's the woman who won't have her cat spayed "because I want my children to learn about life. I want them to see the kittens being born."

Or the man who won't have his female dog spayed "because I don't her to get fat and lazy" or " I heard having a litter will calm her down."

A thousand pet owners have a thousand excuses for letting their pets breed, and so they add thousands - hundreds of thousands - millions - of puppies and kittens to the rising flood of the unloved and unwanted.

How can YOU help?

Spay and neuter the pets in your home. Rescue from the shelter instead of purchasing from pet stores (most of these animals come from breeding mills and backyard breeders). When you adopt an animal, be prepared to make a lifetime commitment, through good times and bad. If you are considering breeding your pet, go down to your local shelter and look into the eyes of the innocent... those hoping beyond hope for someone to love them... and realize that you are denying these animals a home by breeding your pet.