Did you know?

• Cats can become pregnant as young as 4 months of age and dogs can become pregnant as young as 5 months of age.
• Cats can become pregnant while nursing with tiny kittens.
• Cats and dogs can both be safely altered at 2 months of age.
• An unspayed cat will often have two or more litters of kittens per year.
• Allowing your pet to have “just one litter” contributes to pet-overpopulation.
• Cats can be spayed while pregnant for no extra charge.

Spaying or Neutering Is Good for Your Pet

• Spaying and neutering helps dogs and cats live longer, healthier lives.
• Spaying and neutering can eliminate or reduce the incidence of a number of health problems that can be very difficult or expensive to treat.
• Spaying eliminates the possibility of uterine or ovarian cancer and greatly reduces the incidence of breast cancer, particularly when your pet is spayed before her first estrous cycle.
• Neutering eliminates testicular cancer and decreases the incidence of prostate disease.
• Spaying females rabbits can prevent ovarian, mammarian, and uterine cancers, which can be prevalent in mature does

Spaying or Neutering Is Good for You

• Spaying and neutering makes pets better, more affectionate companions.
• Neutering cats makes them less likely to spray and mark territory.
• Unsterilized animals often exhibit more behavior and temperament problems than do those who have been spayed or neutered.
• Spaying and neutering can make pets less likely to bite.
• Neutering makes pets less likely to roam the neighborhood, run away, or get into fights.
• Altering rabbits can reduce undesired behavior such as lunging, mounting, spraying, and boxing.

Spaying and Neutering Are Good for the Community

• Communities spend millions of dollars to control unwanted animals.
• Irresponsible breeding contributes to the problem of dog bites and attacks.
• Animal shelters are overburdened with surplus animals.
• Rabbits reproduce faster than dogs or cats and are the third-most surrendered animal to shelters.

Above reprinted with permission of The Humane Society of the United States

POPPA is Oregon's only statewide, spay/neuter referral and assistance service for dogs, cats, rabbits and other companion animals. With the help of the community, our all-volunteer staff has been able to subsidize over 12,000 spay/neuter surgeries since Sept 2001!