Spay / Neuter Your Pet

Pets aren’t only our friends at home, they are also a part of our neighborhoods, cities, and towns.

At North King Animal Clinic, we feel the overall social well-being of pets is as important as their personal emotional and physical health. That’s why our spay and neuter surgery program is central to the larger role we play as a local community-based animal clinic serving pet owners and their companions in the Northampton / Amherst area.

Why is spaying or neutering my pet important?

Unlike humans, cats and dogs regularly give birth to multiple kittens and puppies.

The National Council on Pet, Population, Study and Policy has published statistics that help give a clearer picture of how quickly the cat and dog population can grow:

A kindle of kittens has an average of 4-6 feline babies and a cat can produce up to 3 kindles a year, making it possible for one fertile cat to birth 18 more. A litter of puppies for a larger dog may have up to 10 new-borns, and a female dog can become pregnant 2 times a year – that’s a potential of 20 puppies per year.

Unfortunately many of these baby animals will never see a happy adulthood.

There are many reasons for this. All too often, a kitten or puppy will be given away in good confidence to a new owner who isn’t ready for the responsibility of taking care of a new pet. Once the cute puppy or kitten becomes a burden in terms of maintenance and cost, they are abandoned onto the streets or into the wild. Unprepared for this sort of life, abandoned animals are at risk of disease, infection, injury, or death.

Most of these homeless pets are collected by a local government agency and put into an animal shelter. The Humane Society of the United States reports that about 4 million cats and dogs are euthanized by public authorities yearly in shelters.

North King Animal Clinic offers a safe, effective and low-cost spaying and neutering service crucial to ensuring new-born cats and dogs in Western Massachusetts of a happy home to grow.