HABRI Central

All humane societies are dedicated to preventing cruelty and suffering. No society can effectively prevent cruelty unless it makes spaying compulsory for all females released for adoption and talks spaying to every owner of a female. Even if the home is a good one in every other respect, if a female is permitted to produce even one litter, the humane society is simply delaying or postponing cruelty. In fact, it is perpetuating it. When the female (which your society otherwise placed so carefully) has a litter, often its owners are not qualified to judge what constitutes a good home. In fact, they are relieved to find any home. Many of these puppies and kittens are reaching homes where they will be neglected or cruelly abused but will continue to reproduce, possibly to be abandoned later. Some are given to wardens or wind up in marts where they are sold cheaply to children whose parents do not even want a pet--or they are sold by weight at rural auctions.
Societies continue to investigate and act upon cruelties which could have been prevented (but weren't) by shutting down the original kitten or puppy mill - and to which the abused animal which they are now trying to help is related. Thus, instead of actively preventing cruelty, I reiterate, many societies are merely delaying it--and perpetuating it.
Because I have worked at grass root levels, I understand how thinly we in the humane movement are already dividing our time and our energies. Thus, to facilitate the participation of individual humane societies, we plan to issue ready-to-use kits. These will include a brief outline of our purpose and goals, along with samples of materials for distribution, and concrete suggestions for putting them to use. Time does not permit my elaborating on this, but we have worked out some of the details, using materials effectively on a tricounty basis on my home grounds. Among them will be a new pamphlet, aimed at the conscience of individual owners of unspayed female pets and unaltered male cats.

Researchers should cite this work as follows:

1. Animal roles
2. Animals in culture
3. Cats
4. Dogs
5. Mammals
6. overpopulation
7. Pet ownership
8. Pets and companion animals
9. population growth
10. population size