“STERILIZATION IS NOT CRUELTY FOR PET, BUT HOMELESS DOES”

Pet sterilization is the process of removing the productive systems of pets to prevent pet overpopulation. and unnecessary pet birth in society. The average production speed of a dog without sterilization could give birth three times a year, and every time it could birth up to 10 dogs. Similarly, the next generation could birth the same number of them, and it is a keep-going cycle. As time goes by, a dog with his following generations could produce up to 60 thousand dogs in only 6 years, and it becomes an uncontrollable situation.

The problem of pets being abandoned and homeless will become more serious, and we will also see the street dogs suffer from illness and hunger or even be killed by car accidents. Nevertheless, there are still voices saying sterilization is against animal rights. Let's see some of their thoughts about this situation.

“Yes, I agree that we should treasure our living beings, but sometimes logic must go first before emotion.”

Jonathan, 48, a public relations officer of PAWS Animal Welfare Society, said. He mentioned that sterilization is currently the most effective way to reduce the pet overpopulation crisis and it has many benefits for pets. “Pets could live longer because sterilization reduces the risk of getting various diseases such as uterine cancer and testicular cancer. They will be more gentle and homely because the sterilization will stop the heat cycle that causes them to become nervous and uncomfortable.” Jonathan stated.

Jonathan,38, public relations officer of PAWS is sharing his thought through online

“Pets is not a baby-making machine, not the tool for you to make money”

Jonathan pointed out that some irresponsible pet shops purposely do not sterilize the pets just to let them breed quickly, even if the pets are in the same family. They sell the pets at a lower price and treat pets as a production machine to produce specific breeds of pets, but never think that pets from the same family may cause genetic disease problems.

He mentioned that this is a bad cycle. When there is a demand, the unresponsible pet shop will continually do it. “This is the dark side of the pet industry. Yes, they are not sterilizing them, but imagine the pets spending their entire lives just to produce more pets for human profit. Is this not more cruelty?” Jonathan said.

Karen, 22, a pet owner of a 4-year-old dog that she adopted, said that she is neutral.

Karen’s 4-years-old dog

“Everyone has the freedom to voice their concern." It is fine, but no matter what, pet owners should take a responsibility to control the production of their pets if they cannot afford to take care of more than one pet.”

Karen emphasized that some pet owners are irresponsible. They simply let their pets go out alone and accidentally get pregnant. When they are unable to take care of the children of their pets, they will simply throw them away, which will result in more abandoned and homeless pets on the street.

Karen added that she didn’t do sterilization for her dog because she thinks it is unnecessary and the sterilization fee is expensive, but she will never let her dog go alone and keep the habit of locking the gate when her dog is alone at home. She will make sure that her dog wears a string on his head before taking him for a walk.

Tan, 20, a pet owner of a 1-year-old cat, feels that sterilization is a must for pets. Tan said that pets didn’t have the ability to take care of themselves as well as their children. They could not control the number of pets because it’s inherent in nature. She added that if pets are over breeds, it will definitely make their bodies worse and they may have serious diseases.

Tan, a pet owner of a 1-year-old cat

“Pets are a part of your family, not the object can be kept it when you are happy or thrown it when you are tired of it.”

Tan mentioned that some of the pet owners didn’t get sterilization for their pets, and as time goes by when it causes some health problems, they will give them up and no longer keep them for life.

How to improve the situation of pet overpopulation due to low average pet sterilization in Malaysia?

According to Kelvin, the Society For The Prevention of Cruelty To Animals (SPCA)’s general manager, education alone can change all of this. He mentioned that if people continually neglected to sterilize their pets and let them produce pets, it may cause the overproduction to become worse and lead to serious abandoned issues.

“Keeping building pet shelters to accept abandoned pets to solve the problem is no longer enough”

“People must have the awareness to sterilize their pets”, Kelvin said. He also mentioned that government should imitate the country Netherlands using the method of TNRM (Trap- Neuter-Release-Manage) to reduce the overpopulation in the society. It is the most human way of controlling the population and shows an effective result as the Netherlands has become the first country without stray pets by using the method.

SPCA, the place where Kelvin works

“Government should strictly make all pet owner to register the ID card for every of their pet”

Lastly, sterilization is not cruel to pets; rather, it assists them in making better decisions on this current issue. Pets with a responsible owner by giving them a home sweet home is the right way of protecting the pet's rights.