1. Sterilize your cat, is it mandatory or not?

Yes, it is now compulsory everywhere in Belgium.
In Brussels: Since 1 January 2018 all cats must be sterilized before the age of 6 months.
In Wallonia: Cats born after 1 November 2017 must be sterilized before the age of 6 months. Cats born before November 1, 2017 must be neutered no later than January 1, 2019.
In Flanders: Cats born after 1 April 2018 must be sterilized before the age of 5 months. Cats born between September 1, 2014 and March 31, 2018 must be neutered no later than January 1, 2020.

2. Sterilize cats, is it really necessary?

This is not unnatural?
Around 30,000 cats are abandoned every year in the shelters of Belgium.
One-third of abandoned cats are euthanized for lack of space and adopters.
Each year, so many more cats are born than there are homes to welcome them.
To these statistics is added the number, impossible to quantify, of kittens born from "unwanted" litters and of which we prefer to "get rid" at home (drowning, etc.), but also those that are euthanized at home. veterinarian or who is thrown to the street.
When they are not killed at birth or abandoned in a shelter, stray cats lead a life of misery.
They often suffer from hunger, cold, disease and human hostility.
Exposed to the risks of poisoning and accidents, the life of the stray cat is relatively brief.
In short, we face a situation of severe overpopulation of cats, whose first victims are the animals themselves.
"Let nature go" is, for a single couple, give life to 36 cats in the space of 16 months ... and often returns to death.
In contrast, sterilization offers serious benefits for the life of the animal.
A castrated male remains energetic, and becomes more sociable and affectionate.
He wanders less and stops delineating his territory with his urine.
He will have less of a tendency to fight with his congeners, a behavior vector of diseases.
A sterilized female is calmer, no longer has heat, is immune to the (real) risk of nerve pregnancy, infection or uterine cancer, and is less likely to develop breast tumors.

3. Is the cost of sterilization not an investment too high?

Having your cat sterilized is not only a legal obligation, but also a guarantee of good citizenship.
It is also a unique cost: about 70 € for a male, 120 € for a female.
Compared to other veterinary and food costs that will be spent throughout the life of the animal, the cost of sterilization is ultimately minimal.
Finally, cat overpopulation also generates costs for society: in Wallonia and Brussels alone, the budget for the sterilization of stray cats (from non-sterilized domestic cats) amounts to 200,000 euros per year; invested with public finances.

4. Is the domestic cat not going away because of compulsory sterilization?

The aim of the compulsory sterilization law is that the situation of feline overpopulation improves.
We are currently in a tragic situation of imbalance: 10,000 cats euthanized per year, for lack of space.
It is therefore illusory to think that the race of the European cat will go out due to this measure.
It will be perfectly possible to relax the legislation if we finally observe a balance between abandonment and adoptions in shelters.

5. But if cats are sterilized and their numbers decrease, there is no risk of genetic depletion?

Domestic cats are largely immune to any risk of genetic impoverishment.
Indeed, the claim that the cat population will shrink to the point where it will reach a critical genetic level (and that related individuals will necessarily have to breed among themselves) is unfounded.
The minimum indices of animals needed to ensure genetic diversity (a few thousand at most) are only equivalent to a tiny portion of cats that are currently abandoned in shelters, not to mention the total number of cats on Belgian territory (approximately two million).
On the other hand, in itself genetic impoverishment (eg following the loss of many individuals and their genetic variants) does not lead to disease.
These are caused by consanguinity.
In purebred dogs, the occurrence of disease and genetic impoverishment is not attributable to the small number of representatives of a breed in question, but to deliberate induced consanguinity, which favors
diseases.
This situation is not applicable to cats that do not belong to a breed standard and are therefore not breeding between related individuals.
It should also be noted that some recent breeds of cats that have been artificially selected for more than 50 years still have genetic diversity comparable to that of domestic cats (= without race), despite artificial selection, reduced populations and consanguinity.
It therefore appears that compulsory sterilization does not pose a danger to the genetic diversity of the cat.
On the contrary, it preserves the diversity and genetic integrity of the wild cat, a point on which many studies draw attention.

6. Why should I sterilize my cat if I do not feel like it?

Why force everyone to do it?
I have a male cat, am I really concerned?
Because of their overpopulation, cats are the first victims of domestication.
All the shelters and actors in the field deplore the tragic situation in which thousands of (stray) cats have to live.
Since its inception, GAIA and other associations have conducted awareness campaigns to encourage officials to sterilize their animals.
Efforts that, in the light of official statistics, are insufficient to really solve the problem.
To save tens of thousands of animals a life of misery and an untimely death, it was essential to pass a law making sterilization of cats in households mandatory.
It is necessary to perceive this measure as a civic and ethical duty that must be met by those responsible for cats, in the same way as other veterinary care.
This duty also applies to people who have male cats: it is not because they do not have to assume the arrival of an unwanted reach ... they do not have a share of responsibility in this problematic.
Because it is the only one that achieves a viable balance in the feline population, the measure prevails over non-vital considerations, and, in its mind, it already fits into the 1986 framework law on protection and the welfare of animals.
It can be compared to the law that already requires to identify all dogs in Belgium.

7. Why has legislation been passed that can not be enforced?

It is obvious that one can not check in each home if the cats have been sterilized according to the law. But that does not take away the impact the measure will have.
No one expects a result of 100% sterilized cats, let alone in the early days after the adoption of the law.
In the same way as the law imposing the identification of dogs and all other restrictive but difficult to control measures it will gradually return to the morals to finally become the norm, aided by the effect of social control.
Also, the visits to the veterinarian will inevitably contribute to the good respect of the obligatory sterilization of the domestic cats.
In addition to compulsory sterilization, it should be noted that each domestic cat must now also be identified by means of a chip whose information is recorded in a national database.
It is therefore an additional means of control.

8. I heard that it can be dangerous to sterilize a young cat.

Some people are worried about so-called "early sterilization" of cats.
However, the question is the subject of in-depth studies, which demonstrate the safety of the operation of sterilization of young cats, and it has been practiced for decades in other countries.
As part of the "Sterycat" project, researchers from the University of Ghent have studied the long-term consequences of early sterilization on the health of cats. Between April 2010 and August 2012, they sterilized 800 refuge cats: 2/3 at a young age (8 to 12 weeks) and 1/3 at a later age (6 to 8 months).
The animals were then adopted and monitored at a veterinary level for 24 months.
As a result, as long as a few simple precautions are taken (feeding before and after the operation, presence of a heat source for body temperature), anesthesia is no more problem in kittens than in adult cats.
Similarly, the researchers did not observe any significant differences with respect to possible growth, allergy, body weight, product elimination or behavior problems.
Finally, it should be noted that the sterilization of young kittens is a common operation and practiced especially in the United States for several decades.

9. Is it not said that a female must have a bearing in her life?

This received idea is not simply based on any scientific argument, and contributes to the problem of cat overpopulation.

For more info:
www.gaia.be
Ravenstein Gallery 27 - 1000 Brussels
info@gaia.be
02/245 29 50