Kitten Vs. Neuter

Should your beautiful cat have kittens?

- Stef Dela Cruz

I want my cat to have kids. I don’t want her genes to go to waste.

”When the person I was talking to uttered those words, I wasn’t surprised at all. It wasn’t the first time someone told me they wanted a mate for their cat. It was also not the first time I took a deep breath, braced myself for a potentially futile discussion, and started casually talking about why wanting a cat to give birth to kittens isn’t the same as expecting human grandchildren.

I looked at the cat—friendly and gorgeous, but caged all day with a tight harness which, from the looks of it, had yet to be adjusted since she was a kitten—and was tempted to roll my eyes and say, “You can’t even take care of one cat and you’re planning to have more?!? Well, that would be a waste of her genes, indeed!”

While it was easy for me to jump on the wagon of self-righteous judgment, not jumping off would have accomplished nothing. Taking the time to speak with other purrents who were uninitiated in matters of animal welfare was the better option; after all, I was just as ignorant not so long ago.

And in case you’re also thinking of finding a mate for your cat, here’s an opportunity for you to find out if spay is really the way… and if neuter is truly cuter.

Why purrents want grandkittens (and why their reasons aren’t good enough)

I knew absolutely nothing about animal welfare when I decided to bring home Hunter, a dachshund looking forlornly at me from the pet store window. I didn’t realize back then that buying a dog would perpetuate the cycle of irresponsible breeding and equally irresponsible buying… or that a homeless dog would have been saved from the shelter if only I had decided to adopt instead.