Let’s Make Every Day World Spay Day

World Spay Day aims to educate people about affordable spay and neuter services to help address animal shelter overpopulation.

Every year, we kill more than 2.7 million shelter pets, because there just isn’t enough space to care for all of the dogs and cats coming into animal shelters. There are a lot of reasons animals end up in shelters, but plain overpopulation is the one that we have the most power to control. You might think that shelters are overrun with dogs and cats that owners gave up, but twice as many actually went in as strays. Spaying and neutering helps keep the stray animal population in check, reducing the number of animals shelters have to euthanize.

One common refrain among animal activists is: “If you can’t afford a pet, don’t get one.” It’s a nice slogan, but the reality can be a lot more complicated. Sometimes people underestimate the real costs of pet ownership. Some people have had a pet for years, then lose their jobs. Maybe you took in a stray animal who needs to be fixed, but it’s out of reach financially.

Whatever the reason, it’s important that we make spay and neuter services accessible to anyone who wants to get their pets or neighborhood strays fixed. The Humane Society’s World Spay Day is aimed at raising awareness about this problem and making the solution accessible even to everyone.

World Spay Day is all about helping connect people with spay and neuter services that they can afford. The Humane Society points to a handy search tool from the ASPCA. You enter your zip code and how far you’re able to travel, and it spits out affordable spay and neuter services in the area.

I plugged in my own zip code and came up with a lot of great options, including small, independent animal rescues that provide free and reduced services. Try it out for your area right here:

In addition to controlling overpopulation, spaying or neutering can actually help with the behavior problems that sometimes lead owners to surrender their pets to shelters. The Humane Society points out that unneutered dogs are less aggressive and less likely to “mark their territory.” They say that even female dogs are calmer and less likely to spray if they’ve been fixed. If your cat has been spraying, getting him or her fixed can help, too. They estimate that 90 percent of “marking issues” can be avoided just by spaying and neutering. And who doesn’t want less pee on their stuff?

When we talk about spay and neuter services, we tend to focus on the most popular types of pets—dogs and cats—but other pets can benefit from spay and neutering, too. Rabbits are a common pet that ends up in shelters, so spaying and neutering can save rabbit lives, too. Rabbits also reap benefits similar to dogs and cats when they’re fixed. They’re less aggressive, spray less and are less prone to hormonal illnesses.

You may have some concerns about getting your pet fixed. If so, I encourage you to read this great article from Nicolas at Pet MD. It gets into the most common concerns people have about fixing their pets and is very enlightening! You may also want to watch this video from cat behaviorist Jackson Galaxy on why you should spay or neuter your cat or dog:

There are a lot of pieces to the shelter overpopulation puzzle, and World Spay Day addresses one of the major ones. I hope that if your pet is not fixed, you’ll use the tool above to find services in your area and that you’ll share this powerful resource with the other pet owners that you know!

If you want more information on why to spay and neuter, check out this infographic from Chastain Vets: