Document Type
Conference Proceeding
Publication Date
1964
Abstract
Almost the whole humane movement is snowed under and overwhelmed by the still mounting flood of surplus cats and dogs. The surplus turns our shelters into sordid slaughterhouses. It distorts and perverts the thinking of many even of our very best people. Hundreds of our societies are kept permanently on the edge of bankruptcy by the single problem of taking in and disposing of cats and dogs which are homeless or unwanted simply because of the immense surplus of such animals.
It is so easy for all of us to throw up our hands and denounce veterinarians for the high fees that ·they charge for spaying. It is so very easy for all of us to place the blame on "irresponsible animal owners". It is easy for us to lay the blame on public pounds or on legislatures.
The fact is, however, that we of the humane movement haven't cleaned up our own house in this respect. Scores of local humane societies still are unrestrainedly selling unspayed female cats and dogs to any takers who appear. Not one humane society in a dozen is conducting any kind of educational campaign about the evils of surplus breeding. The American Humane Association says that it "has no fixed policy" about spaying. The American SPCA, handling 265,000 animals a year, freely releases unspayed animals for adoption.
Recommended Citation
Castle, I. (1964). The war against surplus breeding. In R.J. Chenowith (Ed.), The humane movement, 1964: Selected discussion papers of the National Leadership Conference of The Humane Society of the United States, September 26-29, 1963, (pp. 21-23).
Included in
Animal Studies Commons, Bioethics and Medical Ethics Commons, Nature and Society Relations Commons
Comments
Speakers at HSUS conferences are invited to express their personal opinions about the variety of subjects covered. The papers here published are not necessarily in agreement with policies of The HSUS.