This is jumping back a bit in topic but around here its not hard to find spay/neuter clinics that offer surgery for only $30-40 and that's all they do. It's a lot like an assembly line where they accept animals all day and you pick them up the next. Also its top quality work, been really pleased with them. They also offer it free if you catch a feral cat.

Also, I was traveling up through rural Alabama and saw a $10 spay/neuter clinic. I'm not sure what the funding cocktail is: government support, private donations, etc... but I'm so glad clinics like this exist.

My neighbors have a few intact female cats that are a real nuisance. We are debating on what to do...either trap them and have them spayed at a free clinic, take them to the SPCA or just call animal control and let them sock them with fines.

When I'm king of the world, or win the lottery, I'll pay people--not charge them--to spay or neuter their pet. For $50 bucks a pop, imagine how many people would line up with a dog. It would be like collecting aluminum cans. The poor or homeless could probably support themselves finding dogs and cats to fix.

I'm only half exaggerating. It would only take a generation or two of intensive sterilization of all the dogs and cats that have no reason to breed (real breeding candidates simply wouldn't be brought in) before it could make a real dent in pet overpopulation.

It might cost a few hundred million dollars in the short term (better be Powerball, I guess). But think what it could save in the long term in both money and suffering.

I'd have some cats for ya for sure.

i just had a stray cat spayed it was over $100

I actually have a system that I use that works fairly well as far as medical costs. Now granted I know that not alot of people can do this, I'm just giving it as an example as to how I can afford it.

Cassy has her own health insurance that I pay $68 a month for. Everything that she has done at the vets office or emergency vet gets sent to her insurance company. Since most vets require payment at time of service, I use a Care Credit account to pay the vet. Every time you use it, there is a period of either a month to 12 months interest free. I've always been reimbursed within a few weeks from her insurance minus the annual deductible, and they pay 80%. I use the reimbursement to pay off most of the Care Credit. Then pay the rest as much as I can.

Pretty much anyone can get Care Credit, even if it's only $100. Then pay it back at $15 a month.

I send a check to my vet once a month and let the credit build. That way I have a set amount to budget and then rarely have to pay when something does come up. I like being able to use the money on what I want and not just what insurance covers. Plus, I get 100% control. Whatever I've paid can go to any pet for any service that I choose. It also comes in handy when you have a foster and you want to provide a service that a rescue might think is not essential.

I have always been disgusted about anyone trying to make me feel bad for having bought a dog from a breeder. We searched to find someone who was breeding in a responsible way, working dogs, with good temperments. Not bred to see how big they could get them, or how big their heads were, or any of that. When you breed for that they should be, they come out looking like a real representation of the breed, and able to perform like the breed should, as long as it's owner can follow through. :-)

we have a rescue dog too. We picked her up along the road, and I have regretted it more than a few days, unfortunateley, but that is no fault of her own. That sounds bad, but she has been a real "experience". But we rescue and rehome more than I care to sometimes, but how do you leave them to try to survive on their own? SO many people drop off their dogs. It is very sad.

Point is, when we wanted Tanka, we wanted a particular kind of dog, with particular traits and personality. And whoever said it was true, I would have waited for the right dog. if I want another dog to add to our family at some point, I would proabbly go to a rescue or shelter, I already have the particular dog I want. The next could be whatever we fall in love with.

If responsible breeders stopped breding, the only thing there would be in a few generations was badly bred, or mixed dogs. That would be sad.