Dear Editor,
The number of homeless animals ending up in the shelter is staggering. The pet homelessness in Guyana is something we should all be concerned about. Homeless cats and dogs have to fend for themselves against other animals and cruel humans. They’re often days without food, sleep in the rains and suffer from ailments that are easily treatable. Most wind up as roadkill.
You may think spaying your pet leaves them with huge scars or open wounds, or with a sickly animal that will take up so much of your time. This is not so. A spayed animal will mostly be back to its usual self within 24 hrs and the scar is as big as your smallest fingernail. Spaying your pet is the first step in providing her with a longer, healthier life. Spaying helps prevent uterine and ovarian cancers and breast tumors.
Female cats can come into heat as early as 5 months. A heat cycle can repeat every 2 weeks if she’s not impregnated. The cost of your pet’s spay surgery is far less than the cost of caring for a litter. She will not have problems with bacterial infections from inflammation in the uterus and uterine wall. She will not experience large cysts on the walls of her uterus. You will also be protecting her from mammary cancer, a common disease in unspayed cats. Your pet’s personality will not change. She may even become a better companion. A large majority of Guyanese choose to go for full bred or designer mix dogs. We already have so many wonderful animals in the GSPCA waiting to be adopted, so many on the roads in desperate need of a loving home. Why then are we producing more dogs and cats? The power to change this is in our hands.
Yours faithfully,
Donna Lam
