Cav's Place

A while back I was writing about the need to develop other methods of contraception for animals, because spaying or neutering is cruel and plain wrong. It seems that somebody is really working on this issue and they have achieved results, which is great news.
If what that article says is true, with the pills not disrupting the mating instinct, but only making conception impossible, then it’s exactly what should be on the market. Let your pets be themselves and act on their instincts, just without the risk of an unwanted litter resulting from it. And don’t start with how those mating instincts bother you, because if you wanted something that would sit quietly where you put it and just be huggable and comforting you should have gotten a stuffed toy!
What I find odd is them specifying that the pills must be administered daily while the animal is in heat. If they work just like those for humans do, shouldn’t they be administered daily anyway? Because I know there are already some pills that you can give daily to cats when they are in heat, the difference being that those attempt to block those instincts altogether, putting the cat out of heat, and prolonged usage can have some rather serious consequences. And the other problem with that is that you only start to give your cat the pills after you notice she’s in heat, which may just be too late.
However, either way they work, I highly doubt they’ll also be effective for wild animals, as it seems highly unlikely that they’ll take the required dosage with the required frequency if it’s hidden in food that’s thrown around their territory. Using it in an attempt to control populations of wild animals will likely generate a disaster, with some overdosing while others won’t be taking any, and it will also likely affect both animals that need to have their populations reduced and those that need exactly the opposite. Not to mention that it will weaken the species, as the stronger ones will get that food and end up not passing on their genes while the weaker ones won’t and they’ll have offspring. I can see a real problem if large quantities of these pills will fall into the hands of people who don’t care too much about animals.
Still, it’s certainly a step in the right direction and really nice to see that somebody is making an effort. I suppose more information will be made available in the future and then we’ll be able to figure out exactly how useful this method will turn out to be. As for educating people about animal rights, I fear that’s an endless quest.