First, adopting a pet from a shelter or rescue means that an animal that would have been euthanized has been saved from that fate. However, choosing to adopt rather than shop has additional benefits. Many, if not most, of the animals that are bred to be sold as purebreds or hybrids on the companion animal market are bred by disreputable breeders. In addition to the squalid living conditions for mothers in these puppy or kitten mills, these breeders engage in behavior that directly contribute to homelessness in pets. These practices include: dumping dogs or cats that have not been sold at shelters or on roadways, dumping animals that do not meet breed standards, and dumping female dogs who have outlived their fertility. Furthermore, the conditions under which many of these animals are bred and raised undermines the lifelong health and temperament of the animals, which can result in health and behavior problems that lead irresponsible owners to dump those pets at shelters later in their lives. As a result, even responsible pet owners who purchase their animals from disreputable breeders contribute to the pet homelessness issue. The city has encouraged spay and neutering and adopting rather than shopping by instituting a massive high-volume, low-cost spay/neuter initiative, which targets both mixed-breed and purebred companion animals. In fact, since 2005, "the capacity to conduct high-volume, low-cost surgeries in San Antonio has increased from 17,000 to 65,500 when all clinics operate...

This emphasis on reducing pet reproduction has helped fix many of the issues linked to pet overpopulation. For example, stray animals can become a nuisance, and reducing the number of homeless pets reduces the level of nuisance that they create. It also results in cost-savings for the community, because capturing, impounding, and euthanizing animals costs more money than subsidizing reduced-cost spays or neuters. Furthermore, neutering animals can reduce aggression, which means that if those animals do get loose and roam, they pose less of a danger to the community than they would have posed if unaltered.
A specific subgroup of the homeless cat population is the feral cat population. Feral cats are cats that are generally not appropriate for adoption because they have not lived in domesticated scenarios and they may be able to provide for themselves. However, feral cat populations can grow dramatically in short periods of time, creating to the risk that they will become a health hazard. Trapping these animals, spaying or neutering them, and releasing them back to where they were trapped allows the animals to live without requiring that they be socialized to live with a human family and eliminates the chance that the cat will be able to contribute to the pet overpopulation problem.

Works Cited

San Antonio Area Foundation. "Becoming a No-Kill Community: The Importance of Spay/Neuter." SAAFDN, 2013. Web. 10 Apr.…