Why We Have Our Cats Neutered

Why should I have my tomcat neutered? He won't have kittens... He will!

A tomcat can serve 40 queens (female cats) a year and he can smell and follow the scent of a female over 7 miles. This can happen at a very early age, as young as 5 or 6 months old. In the course of seeking a mate, he can easily get lost.

Unless his owner is persistent (and lucky) and finds him through advertising, Tom is doomed to live a life of misery. Few people will adopt an unneutered tomcat or even tolerate him in their neighbourhood because he fights other people’s pets, male and female.

"Mangy toms" are usually not mangy at all, they are often only neglected, undernourished and battle scarred. And now, we know that an unneutered Tom can transmit a virus; FIV (Feline Immunodeficiency Virus), which is passed on during fights through biting, when the saliva of the infected cat enters the bloodstream of the other.

What about "the girls"?

Did you know that one unspayed female cat can be responsible for 10,924 kittens over 6 years?

We assume a female cat, let's call her Pandora, 1 year old in spring, starts breeding: although most cats have 3 and sometimes 4 litters a year, our calculation is based on the low rate of only 2 litters a year per mature female cat, with 4 kittens each time, 2 male and 2 female.

So next time you are tempted to let your cat have just one litter or hear someone insist it is kinder for the cat to give birth just once, remember - the "just one litter" can be the start of many, many litters. It only needs one of your cat's great, great, great grandchildren to have Pandora's fate... 

LET'S KEEP PANDORA'S BOX FIRMLY SHUT!

© Cat Action Trust 1977