1. Female pets will have longer, healthier life expectancy. Spaying helps prevent uterine infections and breast cancer, which is fatal in about 50 percent of dogs and 90 percent of cats. Spaying your pet before her first heat offers the best protection from these diseases.

2. Neutering provides major health benefits for you male pets. Besides preventing unwanted litters, neutering your mail companion pet prevents testicular cancer, if done before six months of age.

3. Your spayed female won’t go into heat. While cycles can vary, female felines usually go into heat four to five days every three weeks during breeding season. In an effort to advertise for mates, they will yowl and urinate more frequently – sometimes all over the house.

4. Your male dog won’t want to roam away from home. An intact male will do just about anything to find a mate! That includes escaping from the fenced yard or running out of an opened door. And once he is free to roam, he risks injury (or worse) in traffic and fights with other males.

5. Neutered males will be much better behaved. Neutered cats and dogs focus their attention on their human families. Many aggression problems can be avoided by early neutering.

6. Spaying or neutering will NOT make your pet fat. Lack of exercise and overfeeding will cause your pet to put on extra pounds, not neutering. Your pet will remain fit and healthy as long as you provide exercise and monitor food intake.

7. It is cost effective. The cost of your pet’s spay/neuter is a lot less than having and caring for a litter.

8. It is good for the community. Spaying and neutering helps reduce the number of animals living on the streets and those that wind up in animal care and control and shelters.

9. Pets don’t have an emotional need to have a litter. Letting your pet produce offspring that you have no intention of keeping is not necessary for their emotional well being or fulfilling their need to be parents.

10. Spaying and neutering helps fight pet overpopulation. Every year, millions of cats and dogs of all ages and breeds are euthanized or suffer as strays. These high numbers are the result of unplanned litters that could have been prevented by spaying or neutering.

From: Petexaminer