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Prevention is better than killing
While some people don’t mind drowning or strangling kittens if the population grows too large and too fast, most folks don’t have the stomach for it. What doesn’t make sense, though, is that they are doing the very same thing, except that it is now behind their backs due to inaction and ignorance. Is it really any kinder to allow hundreds of kittens to be born, only to starve in misery within a few days or weeks? Or to be eaten by the neighbor’s dog? Or to be brutally killed by the stray tom cat that didn’t sire them? But if you’re not looking, you don’t see it, so maybe it doesn’t hurt YOU.
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You really can make a difference
If every owned pet were to be spayed and neutered, that alone would make a significant impact on the stray overpopulation problem. The reason is simple: Many strays started out as household pets, but were left behind when a family moved away. So many people still believe that a cat is capable of “going wild” and will successfully live out its life on the street, or out in the country (where there are “so many mice” to eat - yeah, right), or that someone else will take them in. So what happens when Fluffy mates and produces 6 kittens three times a year? Fluffy, first of all, wears out from inadequate nutrition, having to hunt for more prey to satisfy more mouths to feed, when just filling her own stomach was a major job, not to mention nursing the hungry babies so they get a good start. What happens, is that Fluffy eventually dies or is killed, and now we have all these kittens that have never known a kind hand from a human and are thus wild. Also, not all of them live, either. Life on the street is extremely difficult and stressful. Most don’t make it, but enough do to cause the overpopulation problem. The individuals constantly change, as many die and don’t live beyond perhaps 2 years, if that, but they are constantly replacing themselves.
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Get your own pets altered
This is the single most important and effective thing anyone can do to prevent overpopulation. Then, if you have the means, capture and alter a stray cat now and then, and release it if you are unable to keep it or find a home.
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