neutering a cat?

[Suranga]

Hi all,

I got a question.

Is it a sin to neuter a Cat (male) . I am thinking to neuter my cat because I heard neutered cat lives stress free.


any advice would be much helpful

with metta

[Sam Vara]

Hi all,

I got a question.

Is it a sin to neuter a Cat (male) . I am thinking to neuter my cat because I heard neutered cat lives stress free.


any advice would be much helpful

with metta

I'm not sure about sin, but it certainly doesn't break any Buddhist precepts and it is a thoroughly sensible thing to do. An un-neutered male cat usually makes a poor pet. It will spray urine everywhere, roam away from home, and cause problems for the people whose cats it impregnates. My cat is neutered, and seems quite happy.

[dharmacorps]

I just neutered a kitten we adopted. I didn't think twice about it. I don't think it causes much harm, but it does do much good in terms of preventing more kittens. We already need homes for lots of animals. In my cat's case, I am not sure it has calmed him down a lot--still has kitten energy, but he did stop "mounting" objects in my house which was probably more visually disturbing to me-- and houseguests!

[Aloka]

I've always adopted neutered cats or kittens from cat protection sanctuaries and they've made excellent, friendly and lively pets.
I don't have anything against them being neutered because it helps to lessen the numbers of hungry and unwanted feral cats and kittens that often live on the edges of urban areas .


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[dharmacorps]

I've always adopted neutered cats or kittens from cat protection sanctuaries and they've made excellent, friendly and lively pets.
I don't have anything against them being neutered because it helps to lessen the numbers of hungry and unwanted feral cats and kittens that often live on the edges of urban areas .
.

Have you ever tried adopting feral kittens? We adopted our first. Hard to know if the rambunctious temperment is just how he is, or semi-feral cat stuff!

[Sam Vara]

Have you ever tried adopting feral kittens? We adopted our first. Hard to know if the rambunctious temperment is just how he is, or semi-feral cat stuff!

Kittens need to be handled from an early age to make affectionate pets who relate well to people. There's probably a difference between those who were abandoned, and those who were born in the wild and never saw people. We once tried to tame feral farm cats, but they were always jumpy.

[Aloka]

I've always adopted neutered cats or kittens from cat protection sanctuaries and they've made excellent, friendly and lively pets.
I don't have anything against them being neutered because it helps to lessen the numbers of hungry and unwanted feral cats and kittens that often live on the edges of urban areas .
.

Have you ever tried adopting feral kittens? We adopted our first. Hard to know if the rambunctious temperment is just how he is, or semi-feral cat stuff!

Yes, years ago I adopted a black and white feral kitten with long fur, and he took a while to calm down but turned into a large, affectionate and friendly adult. He didn't like to be brushed though !

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[dharmacorps]

Kittens need to be handled from an early age to make affectionate pets who relate well to people. There's probably a difference between those who were abandoned, and those who were born in the wild and never saw people. We once tried to tame feral farm cats, but they were always jumpy.

Thanks for sharing your experience. Yeah, our kitten was probably 3 weeks old when he was found by a friend in the woods abandoned. He is affectionate to me sometimes (not my wife, a source of contention), but also likes to play bite a lot, and tear up stuff. He's about 8 months old now. I think he is just a bit hyper and easily overstimulated-- like Aloka's cat. The other day I had someone call me about taking another feral baby and I am not so sure :O

There isn't much guidance in the canon for domestic pets so its up to our discernment!

[Sam Vara]

Thanks for sharing your experience. Yeah, our kitten was probably 3 weeks old when he was found by a friend in the woods abandoned. He is affectionate to me sometimes (not my wife, a source of contention), but also likes to play bite a lot, and tear up stuff. He's about 8 months old now. I think he is just a bit hyper and easily overstimulated-- like Aloka's cat. The other day I had someone call me about taking another feral baby and I am not so sure :O

There isn't much guidance in the canon for domestic pets so its up to our discernment!

People say they need to be handled before 7 - 8 weeks, so that's good news. Cats have distinct "personalities". Our birman has never known anything but ease and comfort, but will still bite.

Cats are rarely mentioned in the canon at all. Their swimming ability and strength are compared unfavourably to those of an elephant, and there is a reference to their skin being used to make a bag!

[Dhammanando]

Cats are rarely mentioned in the canon at all. Their swimming ability and strength are compared unfavourably to those of an elephant, and there is a reference to their skin being used to make a bag!

Don't forget the Babbu ("Cats") Jātaka, wherein four greedy felines come to a bad end.

http://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/j1/j1140.htm

[Sam Vara]

Cats are rarely mentioned in the canon at all. Their swimming ability and strength are compared unfavourably to those of an elephant, and there is a reference to their skin being used to make a bag!

Don't forget the Babbu ("Cats") Jātaka, wherein four greedy felines come to a bad end.

http://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/j1/j1140.htm

Thank you - a new one for me!

Is babbu another word for "cat"? I thought the Pali was bilaro.

[binocular]

I am thinking to neuter my cat because I heard neutered cat lives stress free.

A neutered cat is free of the stress caused by reproductive behaviors and events, and problems directly related to those. But beyond that, it seems to me, that the stress is the same.

We currently have seven cats; five neutered females, one neutered male, and one intact male (whom we intend to give away). Prior to that, we've had altogether, over the years, one neutered male, one neutered female, and three intact males who passed away before the age of one year (back then, it was customary to neuter cats at about the age of one year). So that's my experience with cats.

I can tell you that even though a cat is neutered, chances are it will get into territorial fights with other cats, indoors and outdoors. Fierce fights. Whether the cat is neutered or not seems to have no bearing on how well it handles contact with human strangers, dogs, and other animals.
Also, neutered cats still hunt. And eat nonsense, like flies, moths, mice, etc., from which they get internal parasites. And they tend to bring home fleas and ticks. That's a lot of stress.

Earlier this year, we had to take our two males to the veterinary clinic, both with injuries and complications due to fighting. One had an abscess on his eye, his head swollen to disfigurement, pus coming directly out of his eye. The other one had developed a severe abscess under his skin on his chest, the abscess spread to his chest mucles; he got two surgical wounds and altogether thirteen stiches. For the first week, we had to monitor him 24/7 and take him daily for shots of antibiotics. They are both fine now.

The doctor said that having an intact male cat is like throwing money out of the window; the problems and the injuries never end, and cost a lot to fix. Not to mention there are various dangerous diseases, notably feline AIDS that cats can get when fighting or mating.

One of our females often gets harrassed by her older sister and mother. They are all neutered, and female, and yet they fight.


Neutering a cat will certainly do away with some problems, but it will not make everything smooth and easy.

[Dhammanando]

Is babbu another word for "cat"? I thought the Pali was bilaro.

That's one of them, but Moggallāna's versified thesaurus gives three, squashed in between the words for jackals and wolves:

sigālo jambuko kotthu, bheravo ca sivā pyatha,
biḷāro babbu mañjāro, koko tu ca vako bhave.
(Abhidhānappadīpika 615)

[Suranga]

Thanks for all of your reply's.

Even though neutering a cat seams practical and good for controlling cat unwanted reproduction, what concerns here is that we are doing it against its will. do you think it will fall into breaking precept?

its unlike treating for a sickness.further, unlike urban living cats mine is semi-feral cat(in Sri Lanka) now fully domesticated. may be these cats can live by their own with out much human contact.


with metta

[dharmacorps]

Even though neutering a cat seams practical and good for controlling cat unwanted reproduction, what concerns here is that we are doing it against its will. do you think it will fall into breaking precept?

Of course not. What precept? The 2nd? Taking what is not freely given? That's still kind of a stretch. It is a medical procedure.

If you've ever spent time around cats, you'd know that a lot of their "will" has to be restrained for their own good... Otherwise they would eat themselves sick, fight, pee everywhere...
Cats are widely understood to be one of the few animals who seems to kill for no clear purpose other than amusement (insects, mice, etc). Yes, even our cuddly housecats do this. We are also caretakers of these animals, after all. Feral cats don't live long and life is rough. Housecats have it pretty good but are still in a lower realm of rebirth where they depend on us for everything.