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“Fix Felines by Five Months” — Spay/USA founder Esther Mechler

By

Esther Mechler

Esther Mechler
(Marian’s Dream photo)

“Spay delay has been as bad an influence (especially for cats) as lack of resources.”

Thanks so much for putting out the great article on “The Queen,” by Marvin Mackie, DVM. It seems that a large number of people including too many vets are fuzzy about the topic – I know I was.

As you know, for over two decades now we have worked on the creation of a national network of spay clinics and programs, public and private, with some success. It has been truly heartening to see the spread of the idea from coast to coast and the zeal with which many people have embraced the idea of prevention, the public health approach.

After all that time, I have now come to see that spay delay has been as bad an influence (especially for cats) as the lack of resources. In fact if we can reduce the baseline of breeding felines, we have hope to end the pet surplus (which I personally believe is still very real and very much with us)So Fix Felines by Five was born.

FFFAttached is our new logo and ten points about the campaign thus far. Now we need to recruit people who DO believe there is still a problem and that it can be solved if we prevent those first litters that fill our shelters. If we could just mainstream the concept that between two and five months is when to spay or neuter cats, we would see a nice drop in those unplanned litters. I have always been astounded at how surprised folks are that by six months their kitty could be a ‘mom’! and how many vets refuse to spay prior to six months!

Thank you for keeping us informed!

––Esther Mechler,  executive director
P.O. Box 365, Brunswick, ME 04011
Phone: 207-798-7955
<esther@mariansdream.org>

[Involved in animal advocacy since 1974,  Esther Mechler either founded or helped to cofound nine organizations of  national prominence,  eight of which either still exist or have active descendants.  Founding Spay/USA in 1990,  Mechler retired as executive director in 2008.]

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Comments

  2. Anne Grice says

    This fact has been missing for decades and needs to become in topical conversation now to end this overbreeding of pets. Change the mindset of pet owners with this information!

    • E Mechler says

      Anne any help you and your friends and colleagues can supply – spreading this information via facebook etc – will be welcome. If each Animals24-7 reader sent the article, The Queen, to ten friends and asked them to send to ten more we would have a huge leap forward. The information was not ‘out there’ till recently, but now it is there for you to use – please help and enlist everyone you know to spread the word. Thanks to Jamaka and to everyone who does this! It costs you nothing, and it will change everything for the felines.

  3. Jesslyn says

    In the 1990s I first experienced the great success of pediatric spay neuter.

    Handing out certificates to pet adopters or taking spay deposits wasn’t working. Shelters workers were still dealing with the litters being brought in after a few months of adoption

    But the vets were stubborn. They were taught the arbitrary age of six months at vet school ,and they clung to outmoded practices and technology, which had improved greatly since the six months idea became accepted as the norm.

    Then I experienced the progressive attitude of a veterinarian willing to learn a few new techniques and practice pediatric spay neuter with a litter of foster kittens at two to three months of age.

    I couldn’t believe it. Not only could these kittens be placed already altered, and thus no mistake litters, but they were more likely to stay in their new homes due to fewer problems connected to being unaltered, such as spraying.

    The biggest surprise was how quickly and rapidly these juveniles recovered from surgery. Within hours, they were up, alert, and bouncing around playing.

    In contrast, the six month old and older young adults seemed to take longer to heal, longer to snap out of post-surgery torpor, and experience more post-op pain and take longer to heal. it just was a more difficult experience, the older they were at surgery date.

    I adopted one of those foster kittens and kept track of the others, and all lived long, healthy, lives.

    I have experienced nothing but success with pediatric spay neuter ever since.

    It has been frustrating to see how many lives have been lost since then due to the slow progress within the veterinary community, and also the misinformation or outright lies from the breeding industry and some allied vets that wanted to avoid the responsibility and expense of spaying and neutering their sold animals prior to sale .

    I hope there is a light at the end of the tunnel after all these years.

    No pet should be placed without being altered first.