Not Fixing Your Pets is YOUR Choice, But It Affects EVERYBODY [OPINION]

I'm not afraid to say it - I'm sick of it. Have your pets spayed or neutered. It's not about you.

It SHOULD be pretty obvious how many animals in Genesee County need homes; we do AJ's Animals every Monday morning with the Humane Society of GC. And guess what? There's never a shortage of homeless animals. Yes, not all of them are strays; some of them are surrendered because of housing or health problems. But the majority of them are products of people not spaying and neutering their animals.

The HSGC is almost ALWAYS at capacity, especially with cats. And I. AM. SICK OF IT.

I found several kittens in the wooded area near our subdivision yesterday. I posted on both ours and another sub's Facebook pages, and nobody claimed them. In the comments came a barrage of pictures of OTHER strays people have found in our area...but very few of us could take them in.

I'm not against breeders. I'm not against buying an animal of pedigree; we have an exotic cat from a breeder. But we also have two rescue animals - a cat and a dog. We adopted the cat from the Humane Society here, and our dog from a woman in Wisconsin who was sick and could no longer keep her.

But let's be honest - you're probably not a professional breeder. There are very few of them. If you are allowing your pets to be impregnated so you can sell the puppies for money and you're not a REAL breeder, you're doing it wrong.

It's kind of like smoking - is it YOUR choice? Absolutely. But it also hurts those around you. And look at how hard we've cracked down on smoking? It's a GOOD thing.

Don't tell me that you can't afford it - if you can't afford this one-time procedure (which are often offered at discounts from several different organizations in our area), then you can't afford to have said pet.

We were broke as a JOKE when we got our dog, and in hindsight, we should've waited. But guess what we didn't wait to do? Spay her. We put money in an envelope for two paychecks and took her in. Why is this even a question?

I can't believe how many dogs I saw at the Davison dog park that weren't neutered whose owners had to hold them back from humping anything that moved. This is irresponsible and unnecessary.

We don't need more strays. We don't need more animals with health problems. 

I'm now leaving out food and water for the kittens down the street, and there's more of them every day. It's a problem. It affects everybody. It's inhumane, it's lazy, and totally preventable. So dammit, LISTEN TO BOB BARKER!