Welcome to the ASPCA Online Community!

[Elyse Orecchio]

Hi! Ready to Rock This Forum?
Thank you for visiting the ASPCA discussion forum. We are committed to allowing freedom of expression for our members, and that includes maintaining a safe space for people with opposing views to express themselves. We get posts from all over the country and even the globe, so needless to say, people come with different viewpoints on animal welfare. We see this diversity and variety as a real strength-- dialogue and debate are an integral part of the educational process, as well as an important tool in exploring different sides of complex issues.

ASPCA Code of Conduct
Okay, I know we said we want you to have the freedom to express yourselves. And we do. But a few rules never hurt, right?
• Be nice! No flaming. Many posters come here for information, not to be called names.
• Please respect the different backgrounds and education of posters—especially when it comes to diverse perspectives on animal treatment. The best thing you can do for animals is politely educate on how to protect them.
• No one needs to hear you correct them on proper grammar and spelling. Let’s talk animals, not the difference between affect and effect.
• Wanna talk about religion and race? Well, we don’t. We wanna talk about animals.
• Don’t gang up with other posters against one person. It’s not nice! Better to stick to animal talk.
• Did I mention you should…talk about animals? Cool! Now get to it and have fun!

Medical Questions:
Please, please, please do not submit questions about emergency medical problems here. If you think that your pet is sick, contact your veterinarian. Self-diagnosis or delay seeking proper veterinary care may worsen your pet's condition.

Questions for the ASPCA:
While the ASPCA staff does monitor the ASPCA Community, we can't always answer individual questions via the discussion boards. If you have a question for the ASPCA, please visit www.aspca.org or send me a message via my profile.

Reporting Discussion Board Abuse:
To report discussion board abuse, please visit: http://aspcacommunity.ning.com/main/index/report.

All right, now that you've gotten the boring rules part out of the way, start postin' some animal love! Can't wait to talk to you!

Best,
Elyse

[bams481]

Oh you made me laugh so hard. I've been holding back all day

[JulieAnn Zserdin]

I have been joining groups and reading many stories on this site. My biggest concern is that poeple don't act responsibly with thier pets. We get upset over the killing in shelters, the strays walking the streets, the animal neglect and cruelty, etc etc, yet the majority of pet owners do not get thier animals fixed. There are very few cities where you can not find a place that fixes your pet quite cheaply. Even if it means taking them to another city near by. If pet owners would get animals fixed we wouldn't have all the strays and over population of domistic pets.
Than you have all the crazy "back yard" breeders out there trying to make a buck and breeding animals that are not needed. It is bad enough we have the pet stores buying babies from breeding mills without having private citizens adding to the numbers of unwanted pets. I feel our laws should be stricter on who is allowd to breed a animal.
I live in the country and it disgusts me to see the number of strays in my area. I have taken in 18 strays and can't afford to take in any more, yet there are still dozens of strays running around just my area. The biggest problem in most areas is cats. People get a adorable little kitten and by the time that kitten is 4 months old it is able to breed. The owner doesn't fix it and it either goes out and makes babies, or gets preg and has babies. Than the owner either is trying to find homes or putting the kittens in all ready over populated shelters. Or just letting the new kittens run wild outside making more kittens. It really disgusts me that owners are not responsible and don't get their pets fixed to prevent over population. plus fixing your pet is healthier for the animal.
I say again, if you are a pet owner.

GET YOUR ANIMAL FIXED.
GET YOUR ANIMAL FIXED.

[bams481]

agreed, 100%

[Bullies2Love]

You know what the average Vet asks for to spay/neuter your animal here? Around 300-500! Is that insane or what? I paid $200 for mine. Insane!

[bams481]

I paid around $70 for each cat I have and my dog was free because I had won a drawing at a local fair

[Linda W]

Only advantage of getting old...Here Senior Citizens get a disccount so we only pay $35.00/$45 at our animal shelter (a no kill to boot) I've had three vets with much higher charges and the 4 cats I had neutered and/or spayed came home from the shelter experience, more alert and in better shape. I guess we are very lucky.

[bams481]

Where there are senior discounts, I take my neighbor along and she hands them my debit card and they give me the discount :P

[Paul Casarona]

Bullies,
That is most shocking. Hard to blame lower income animal owners for not doing the responsible thing in your area. Our local humane society is starting their own spay/neuter clinic, which I am sure will upset some local vet.s who are charging significantly more money than the humane society will. While the average cost of spay/neutering here is much less than in your area, it is still cost prohibitive for enough people that we continue to have severe overpopulation problems. Every single day that I volunteer at the humane society we get drop offs of box after box after box or unwanted kittens and puppies. Today, they literally ran out of kennels due to the number of drop-off's and owner surrenders. There is no more important issue than spay/neutering if you truly care about animals.

[bams481]

Most places offer packaged deals for less if you adopt from them, as they did with you :)

[bams481]

Why not do something about it instead of sitting on line complaining about it, as you have felt the need to complain about the same thing in the same thread 4 days apart

[bams481]

inappropriate and an animal abuser? I think not

[bams481]

I;ve been trying to respond to this all day from my stupid phone. I hit a dead end with finding quality food that has fiber in it. I am thinking of just mixing benefiber with his reg. food, but the vet could not tell me the dosage. Not sure how much to give him. Too little and he will be back where we started and too much and I will have a mess to clean up. He goes back for a follow up check up on monday