Late last night on Broadway Boulevard I drove past a kitten laying in the road. Road kill of any kind makes me queasy, but this time I didn’t see any blood and the kitten wasn’t obviously squashed.
I pulled over and went to investigate. Sure enough, the little orange-striped kitten was breathing, barely, but he was definitely still alive. I picked him up off the asphalt, wrapped him in a towel and raced to the nearest 24-hour emergency veterinary clinic so he could be examined.
He was in shock, had suffered severe head trauma and possibly a broken jaw, wasn’t neutered and didn’t have a microchip. From what the vets could tell, he didn’t belong to anyone.
Because I had brought him in, his vet fees, starting at a minimum of $800 to stabilize him and treat his injuries (if he didn’t die on his own after being stabilized), would fall to me unless I surrendered him to the clinic, where they would probably euthanize him. I’m a student working for a student newspaper. I barely make $800 a month.
As much as I desperately wanted to pay for the little guy’s treatment, I just couldn’t, especially with such a high chance that he would die anyway. I signed him over to the clinic and left in tears. My fiancé and the veterinary clinic staff tried to comfort me, saying what I did was heroic. At least he didn’t suffer and die an awful death in the street; at least I didn’t leave him there to get run over again; at least he was loved in his last moments. Last night, I was inconsolable.
Today, I’m pissed. What kind of human being hits an animal and doesn’t stop to see if it’s ok? Or at least move it out of the street? Or maybe a better, bigger question is what kind of heartless monster allows that little kitten to be out on the street in the first place? To the irresponsible people who don’t spay or neuter their pets, that kitten’s blood is on your hands.
Spaying and neutering pets prevents them from making more animals that will roam the streets, unloved and uncared for, facing death, disease, starvation and suffering. It prevents thousands of pets from entering the state’s overflowing shelters only, for many of them, to end up euthanized.
In 2007 alone, over 133,000 dogs and cats entered the 35 public and private shelters in this state. During that year, 67,000 of those animals had to be euthanized, according to Animal Protection of New Mexico.
APNM’s website provides startling numbers. The average number of litters a fertile cat can produce in one year is three. The average number of kittens in that litter is between four and six.
In seven years, that one unspayed female cat and her offspring can produce hundreds of thousands of kittens. If you don’t spay or neuter your animals, that’s the blood of hundreds of thousands of animals on your hands.
Not being able to afford spaying or neutering pets is not an excuse. I’ll ignore the fact that those who can’t afford to take care of their pets shouldn’t have them, and instead say that New Mexico has many options for low-cost or free spay or neuter options.
The Animal Humane Society will spay or neuter dogs lighter than 80 pounds for $50. That’s the cost of about three bags of dog food.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
The Humane Society sterilizes cats for just $20. That’s about two bags of cat food. If you can afford to feed your pet, you can afford to sterilize it.
The City of Albuquerque’s Animal Welfare Department offers low-cost sterilization for low-income city residents. The Bernalillo County Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, SNAP, offers low-cost spay or neuter options for those who qualify.
Pets aren’t play things: They live and breathe and feel love and pain just like you. It’s up to you to responsibly care for them.
This column is written in memory of the little cat that died last night. I hope he’s in a better place now, loved and free from the irresponsible monsters who caused his untimely death.
