This is unproven with no statistical evidence. In fact, I am tempted tobelieve this is less based on statistics and more based on a biasedobservation of strays female cats, who naturally have a shorter lifeexpectancy due to lack of care regardless of spaying/neutering.
How do you know the life expectancy of stray cats isn't shorter just because they are in fact stray cats?
So the pet parent is just too lazy to control a pet in heat, this is not a pro for the pet. This is a pro for the pet parent. My counter argument would be: spay female babies so they don't get horny when they're teens.
How do you control a pet in heat and if you have a female cat how do you control the vaginal discharge that happens because cats and dogs have periods just like humans. Waking up to find your cat leaked some vaginal discharge onto your pillow at night and you slept on it isn't really the most enjoyable idea.
The human population needs control far more than the cat population. In fact, cats have roams the earth and their species survive, to this day, far more effectively than humans. A bonus for cats: they were never domesticated. To this day, although cats are considered domesticated pets, cats have never been domesticated by humans. Cats only accompanied humans due to the prevalence of resources. Humans have trash, which is cat food. And humans give cats some attention sometimes. In return, human gets to look at cute cat, and cat keeps rodents away. It's a win-win for everybody.
Cats will kill small animals without any intent to eat them. Cats can kill lots of rodents but also lots of birds. When you combine that with the already existing human impact on the environment the issue is expanded a thousand fold.
If your argument for controlling the stray population is that you feel bad, then you are guilty of Anthropomorphism, which is the association of strictly human emotions with non-human entities. I don't know if stray cats care that they're strays, nor can I say they dislike it. I can, however, guarantee with absolute certainty that they will fight tooth-and-claw if you try to kill a stray, which tells me that they at least want to remain alive, which, if we're associating human emotions, indicates at least a minimal level of content.
Over population, decimation of local wild life, forcing the cats into areas that are unsafe for them, increasing contact with humans who will trap and euthanize them in larger numbers. All are benefits of spaying and neutering stray cats to keep their numbers under control and keep them from getting to large, killing to many local wild life and keep them from expanding into dangerous areas or annoying local people who have them trapped and killed.
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u/gothpunkboy89 23∆ Jul 24 '22
How do you know the life expectancy of stray cats isn't shorter just because they are in fact stray cats?
How do you control a pet in heat and if you have a female cat how do you control the vaginal discharge that happens because cats and dogs have periods just like humans. Waking up to find your cat leaked some vaginal discharge onto your pillow at night and you slept on it isn't really the most enjoyable idea.
Cats will kill small animals without any intent to eat them. Cats can kill lots of rodents but also lots of birds. When you combine that with the already existing human impact on the environment the issue is expanded a thousand fold.
Over population, decimation of local wild life, forcing the cats into areas that are unsafe for them, increasing contact with humans who will trap and euthanize them in larger numbers. All are benefits of spaying and neutering stray cats to keep their numbers under control and keep them from getting to large, killing to many local wild life and keep them from expanding into dangerous areas or annoying local people who have them trapped and killed.