DESEXING your cat costs only $30 over July, due to it being National Desexing Month and a special discount scheme operated by the Animal Welfare League’s Hawkesbury branch.
Desexing pets can extend their lives as the removal of reproductive glands diminishes their risk of prostate or breast cancer.
It also limits the births of unwanted animals and them being dumped.
Australia’s feral cat population, one of the world’s most deadly when it comes to wildlife, has in large part grown from the dumping of unwanted kittens.
‘‘Dogs’ desexing costs $100; we’re concentrating on cats because stray and feral cats are the main problems,’’ the secretary of the league’s Hawkesbury branch, Cheryl Conway-Pearce, said.
‘‘Stray dogs are a problem but they don’t kill all the wildlife.
‘‘If we get fewer stray cats we’ll get fewer of them starving, fewer going feral and having kittens until they’re physically depleted; it’s a pretty disgusting life for them.’’
The desexing discount scheme operates with veterinarians across the Hawkesbury, Penrith and the lower Blue Mountains.
Ms Conway-Pearce said in months other than July, the scheme offered cat desexing for $60.
‘‘Desexing cats can cost as much as $200 or $300,’’ she said.
‘‘A lot of people, such as pensioners, can’t afford that, even though they want to do the right thing.’’
The Animal Welfare League offers other services.
Ms Conway-Pearce said the branch was always looking for volunteers, to help people drive their pets to the vet, to help out in the office or even to care for a pet temporarily.
The league’s Hawkesbury branch meets the first Saturday of each month, except December, at 1.30pm at the Richmond Club, corner of East Market and Francis streets, Richmond.
Discount desexing inquiries: 0412 144 918.
More information: AWL Hawkesbury branch, PO Box 942, Windsor NSW 2756 or phone 0400 293 116, 0421 233 878 or 0428 221 784.
