Benefits of Spaying (Female):

• No heat cycles, therefore males will not be attracted.
• Less desire to roam.
• Risk of mammary gland tumors, ovarian and/or uterine cancer is reduced or eliminated, especially if done before first heat cycle.
• Reduces number of unwanted cats/kittens and dogs/puppies.
• Helps pets live longer, healthier, happier lives.

Benefits of Neutering (Males):

• Reduces or eliminates risk of spraying and marking.
• Less desire to roam, therefore less likely to be injured in fights or auto accidents.
• Risk of testicular cancer is eliminated, and decreases incidents of prostate disease.
• Reduces number of unwanted cats/kittens and dogs/puppies.
• Decreases aggressive behavior.
• Helps pets live healthier, happier lives.

Additional Community Benefits:

• Unwanted animals are becoming a very real concern in many places. Stray animals can easily become a public nuisance, spraying and smelling, soiling parks and streets, ruining shrubbery, frightening children and elderly people, creating noise and other disturbances, causing automobile accidents, and sometimes even killing other animals.
• The capture, impoundment and eventual destruction of unwanted animals, costs taxpayers and private humanitarian agencies over a billion dollars each year! As a potential source of rabies and other less serious diseases, they can be a public health hazard. (The American Veterinary Medical Association)

Did You Know?

• At the rate companion animals are being bred (purposefully or unwittingly), there will never be enough homes for all of them. The alternatives are painful lives, painful deaths and shelter euthanasia, amounting to millions in the U.S. alone.
• Other common synonymous terms for spay/neuter are altered and fixed.

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Spaying (ovarian-hysterectomy) is the surgical removal of the reproductive organs (ovaries, uterus, fallopian tubes) of the female animal.

Neutering (orchectomy or castration) is the surgical removal of the reproductive glands (testes) of the male animal.