Tubal ligation for a cat?

[FrekeChild]

Date: 2/16/2010 10:00:42 PM
Author: crasru
You know, Freke, things happen in everyone's life. Anything can happen. This woman who spontaneously adopted two kids although she planned for one, she made a great mother for both of them. Now both of them are teenagers, they love each other and their parents, and the boy's IQ is through the roof. Although the decision was totally spontaneous.

You are getting prepared to take in a dog - fine! I took the last animal in the box spontaneously - is it bad? Really, it does not matter! My second kid was totally unplanned - does it mean that we love him less? Or are less responsible? I highly doubt it.

Can someone give a cat away? Absolutely. He may do the same with the cat adopted from a shelter. The chance is the same; I think it is less for my cats because I know these people. Professionals, doctors, nurses, scientists. For a while I had this idea of calling the people who adopted my cats and finding out how the cats were doing. But it would take me a while to get their phone numbers (I moved 8 yeara ago).

Read my previous post - if people take care of all animals, cats, dogs, horses, AND all kids in their houses (I don't even want to start here) we shall end up with only no-kill shelters.

From my geropsychiatry experience I know of situations when owners died and no one could take in the pets. They had to be given to shelters. These are exceptions. And they should remain exceptions.

Although, why does all it surprise me? I heard of a doctor in old country who euthanised a baby born with Down syndrome. Of course there was absolutely no proof and all the thing was hush-hush but rumors were spreading. If this is true, why are we surprised about cats or dog in shelters? I just don't want to start the whole topic of euthanasia which is now legal in our state for fear that it might be viewed as 'political discussion'.

What do the bolded parts have anything to do with the current situation? Just curious, because I don't see the connection.

I have had my dogs for a year.

I read your posts, but thanks.

My point was that the longer people take to think about their decisions, the less likely they are to regret them, and potentially to take steps to negate that initial decision.

This conversation seems to be going nowhere, so I'm going to step out.

 

[Lynn B]

Looks like this thread is (thankfully) dying down, but I just found it and want to add my 2 cents, FWIW.

I think there are two issues here.

#1 issue, the tubal ligation. Do I believe in spaying/neutering for cats? Absolutely and without a doubt. Every cat I have ever owned has been spayed and neutered as early in life as safely possible. (As a side point, it is still very common for speutered cats try to hump one another... regardless of either's gender.) Anyway, I digress.

I have actually heard of tubal ligations and vasectomies for cats. In fact, I remember reading once (I can't remember where, though, sorry) that in some large feral colonies people were getting better results with not just trapping, neutering, and returning (as is commonly practiced), but actually vasectomizing some of the males instead. The reason, they just weren't able to physically capture ALL the (feral) cats and females continued to come into heat, and bear more kittens. But with vasectomized males in the feral colony, the cycle (of females coming into heat often and repeatedly and often roaming to look for whole male cats in the process) could be stopped, because they were mating with the vasectomized males who obviously didn't make them pregnant, but the coitus would halt the heat cycle. The feeling was that while TNR can absolutely help level out the population, using the vasectomized males may actually REDUCE it.

#2 issue, the 12 kittens that the OPs cat was allowed to have. Yeah, that's 12 more kittens born into in a very overpopulated cat world, where sadly, many homeless cats die everyday. So I can well understand the strong feelings about this and knee-jerk reaction of animal lovers; that fact hurts me, too. But if I am very honest, then I have to look at myself and think about my cat, Boo - a purebred Ragdoll... couldn't the same be said for him and his littermates? Or any purebred cat allowed to be born on this planet? True, they don't usually end up homeless or in shelters (but they can) but does their existence mean that another cat (perhaps a shelter cat) may die without a home? Tough, heart-wrenching questions for me to consider.

It sounds like OP found those 12 kittens good homes, and I can absolutely understand her statement that those people probably weren't going to go to the shelter and rescue a kitten or a cat. I've been there myself! Several years ago when we had been happily pet-free for years, my son rescued a pregnant cat from the shelter and we (who had NO intention of getting another cat) fell in love with and adopted one from the litter. That cat is our wonderful (now "grand-kitty") Buster, who our daughter took with her when she got married.

So, in summary... if OP is asking for opinions, do *I* think she should have her cat's tubes tied? No,not really... I don't think it's any personal disservice to a cat to remove its ovaries, tubes and uterus (or its testes). But if she feels differently, and she can find a reputable, qualified vet to do the surgery, then so what? I look at it as her business, and I'm just glad that is one cat with a warm and loving home. And if she wants to get a vasectomized male to copulate with her female, then again, it may not be something *I* would personally do, but she's entitled to her own decisions on her cats' behalfs, and again, that's another cat in a warm and caring home.