[WILD ANIMAL NOISES]
All right, folks.
Today we're going to answer a very, very important question.
A question that I get more often than I probably
should at this point, which is, Jackson,
should I spay or neuter my animal companion?
Should you?
Man, we are about to get catified up in here.
Let's go.
[JAZZY INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]
Let's break it down to the questions
that I get asked most often.
It's not just, should I spay or neuter?
The question usually revolves around marking behavior,
cats who are just bound and determined to get outside.
And when they do, bad things happen.
You can't stop a sexually mature cat from wanting to roam.
For the males, they have a hormonal prime directive
which is to populate their territory.
And for the females, they'll be rolling around on the pavement.
They'll be leaving scent everywhere.
How do I get my cat to stopping peeing all over the house?
Most the time, I'll tell them to take that blacklight of yours,
go outside the house, and I bet you'll
find evidence of neighborhood cats, feral cats that are also
marking against your house.
So it's a pretty normal reaction on your cat's part
to say, hey, hey.
I draw the battle lines right here.
This is my place, and I'll pee on this wall
while you're peeing on the opposite side.
The problem is you've got a hormonal war on your hands.
And the only way to deal with that is spaying or neutering.
I can't fix the behavior unless we fix the animal.
That's the bottom line.
A lot of folks say to me, well, I've
heard that if I spay my cat or if I neuter my cat,
they tend to get really fat.
No, no.
That's not a cause and effect.
What tends to happen is that they spend all this time
that they were outside roaming inside the house.
You don't occupy their time by playing with them,
and instead they are now eating way too much
and not doing anything.
And that's why they get fat.
So as long as you pick up the slack
in terms of giving them activities, then
you won't have a fat cat post surgery.
You asking me, how do I get my cats to get along?
If one of them is not spayed or neutered, if all of them
are not spayed or neutered, I can't help you.
The other thing that folks don't realize
is that a sexually mature animal has infinitely greater chances
of cancer, namely testicular cancer, ovarian cancer.
It's going to happen more likely than not.
I mean, a lot of my clients will say, ugh, it's so invasive.
And then there's also, I wanted my cat or my dog
to have one litter before I spayed or neutered them.
Or, I wanted my children to see the miracle of birth.
You're not thinking about these very basic statistics.
These are statistics.
I didn't make this up, OK?
We have 700,000 animals, cats and dogs,
born on a daily basis in this country.
6 to 8 million animals are booked
into shelters every year.
Now, we are doing a lot better than we were just 20 years ago,
but that means that we're still killing 3 to 4 million
of those animals every year because there's not
enough homes for them.
That amounts to one animal every 11 seconds
that's dying in a shelter.
Yeah, that's where we're at right now.
We have a job as people who love animals,
and that is to stop killing them.
I know you love animals, otherwise
you wouldn't be watching me right now.
So I am begging you, for the sake of your animal's health,
for the sake of the health of the entire population of cats
and dogs, for the people who have the unfortunate
job of having to care for these animals in the shelter system,
please, please, please get your cat spayed or neutered.
Now, if you tell me you can't afford it,
there are programs all over this country, all
over the world as a matter of fact,
that will help you to afford it.
Community based programs where you
don't have to pay practically anything.
I mean, you should pay something.
I mean, if you have an animal in your life,
this is minimum care.
Now that's it for me today, but I
know you guys are going to have lots to say about this.
I want to hear about it on social media like Twitter
and Facebook and Instagram.
You know I'm always looking at that, responding there.
And there is the Google Hangout, Live from the Cat Cave,
coming up very soon.
That is September 30, Tuesday.
I want to hear what you have to say about spaying and neutering
and adoptions and what we can do to bring down
the numbers of euthanized animals in this world.
All right folks, that's it for me.
Until next time, (SINGING) all light, all love, (DEEP VOICE)
all mojo to you.
[LAUGHS]
See this beautiful little shirt I'm wearing right here?
Remember Me Thursday.
Remember Me Thursday is coming up
on Thursday-- of course-- September 25th.
It's your chance to do some very simple,
and that simple thing is light a candle.
We're trying to light up the world for orphaned pets.
That is to say that we want to remember all the millions that
have died, and we want to acknowledge
that there are millions more out there
who can find forever homes if we do our due diligence, if we
spay or neuter.
So it's very simple.
Go to remembermethursday.com.
Also you can follow it on social media
by using the hashtag #lightforpets.
I want to see you do your part on this one, OK?
[ANIMAL NOISES]