WE CANNOT STRESS TOO STRONGLY THE IMPORTANCE OF HAVING CATS NEUTERED. Some people think that this is unnatural and cruel and that it deprives the cat of pleasure. Well, keeping pets is unnatural in the scheme of things, and sexual activity for cats is not pleasurable. They are not the same as us in that respect. There are many very good reasons for neutering:

MALES:

1. Entire males fight. This is a fact. They fight seriously and can cause each other very nasty injuries, such as the loss of an eye. Abscesses are very common, and such wounds often result in FIV infection. In fact, the chances of an entire male escaping FIV infection by the time he is 2 or 3 years old are very low. Most adult entire males who are allowed outside get infected. It only needs one fight with an FIV positive cat to transfer this infection. How many times can you toss a coin and have it come down heads?

2. If you think the answer is to keep the cat indoors, you will end up with a very unhappy, frustrated cat who is likely to spray pungent urine over your furniture and possessions and may turn aggressive and/or destructive.

3. It is a fact that the average lifespan of a neutered male is 15-16 years. An entire male, 5 years.

4. The entire roaming male is at much greater risk of road traffic accident because his mind is distracted by the urge to mate, and this causes him to run heedlessly across busy roads.

PLEASE help your cat to live a longer and healthier life by having him neutered before he reaches puberty. It is not just the owners of female cats who need to be responsible.

FEMALES:

1. The sexual act for a female cat is a gang rape! She will invite it because her hormones make her do so, but it is certainly not pleasure! The penis of the male cat is barbed, so that on withdrawal it scrapes the inside of her vagina. This is necessary to stimulate ovulation, but it is painful - which is why the female turns and attacks the male after the act.

2. She will be held down by several males during her oestrus time. They will hold her by their teeth in the scruff of her neck while they mate with her. If an over enthusiastic male penetrates her flesh she is likely to be infected with FIV as there would be a high chance that the male is positive for that virus. The virus spreads by deep bites.

3. If she is not spayed and is kept indoors and not allowed to mate, she will become very unhappy and frustrated. She, like the confined entire male, may become aggressive and/or destructive, and may display her unhappiness with inappropriate behaviour, such as urinating on beds and furniture.

4. More importantly, ENTIRE FEMALES WHO ARE PREVENTED FROM HAVING KITTENS ARE VERY LIKELY TO DEVELOP CYSTIC OVARIES, PYOMETRITIS (a serious womb infection) OR BREAST CANCER.