Canobolas Family Pet Hospital

Open 7 days

1/9/09

Geoff Freeth, a veterinarian at Canobolas Pet Hospital has called for the mandatory desexing of all cats after a busy start to the cat breeding season. Not only does spring bring a lot of unwanted litters of kittens, but also an enormous increase in territorial fights amongst cats. Vets spend much of their time in spring patching up infected fight wounds.

According to Dr Freeth, if all cats were desexed it would both help the feline overpopulation problem but help stop territorial fights and the spread of diseases like Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (FIV), the cat equivalent of human AIDS.

Under the scheme he is supporting, only registered breeders could have non desexed cats, which would create responsible breeding practices and an end to overpopulation. Desexing is cheaper than raising a litter of unwanted kittens.

“Male cats only cost around $50 to desex, females are $135, which shouldn’t break the budget of most people, particularly when there is time to save for it and of course it’s a one off cost. Its an elective procedure mostly done at 6 months of age, so there is time to save for it, once you have a kitten,” said Dr Freeth.

Controlling the cat population also helps protect our wildlife against the ravages of feral cats.

Currently the in the ACT desexing of non-breeding cats has been mandatory since 2001, but has had mixed success in decreasing the numbers of unwanted cats euthanased. However, desexing has other benefits to the cat and human population as well.

“Desexing is the most important thing we can do for the cat population as a whole,” said Dr Freeth. “Desexing not only stops unwanted breeding and overpopulation, but it also helps control undesirable behaviours like Tom cats spraying urine and fighting. The answer is obvious and simple. All cats should be desexed”, he says.

For more information on the mandatory desexing scheme in the ACT visit

http://avacms.eseries.hengesystems.com.au/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Home&TEMPLATE=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&CONTENTFILEID=1100

For a copy of this release visit

http://www.canobolasvet.com/site/view/162084_Mandatorydesexing.pml

Mandatory desexing purr-fect

BY TRACEY PRISK CWD

3/09/2009 1:54:00 PM

A LOCAL veterinarian is pushing for the introduction of mandatory desexing of cats in an effort to prevent unwanted litters and an increase in territorial fights among cats.

According to Canobolas Family Pet Hospital veterinarian Geoff Freeth, brawling undesexed cats help spread diseases such as feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV), the cat equivalent of human AIDS.

“The incidences of FIV sits at around 15 to 20 per cent in Australia, although there are places such as Goulburn where 30 per cent of cats have FIV so it’s impossible to know how many local cats have the disease,” he said.

“The majority of people see it as the responsible thing to get their cats desexed, however there is a small percentage of people who don’t do it because they’re lazy or lack education (on the issue).”

Dr Freeth says feral cats are also an increasing problem in the region and while desexing won’t have an immediate impact on feral cat numbers, he believes there will be long-term benefits.

Orange Veterinary Hospital veterinarian Andrew Litchfield said while he supported the idea of mandatory desexing, administering it would prove difficult.

“I support cat curfews where they are locked up at night; this solves a lot of the problems,” he said.

“There’s nothing worse than a cat that’s not desexed and it’s something that all responsible owners do anyway.

“I think that mandatory desexing will prove difficult to enforce on people who don’t have the resources.”

The proposal would allow registered breeders to have undesexed cats.