The neutering of cats prevents many issues

CAT expert John Bradshaw says that feline faces remind us of a human baby’s face and are “powerful releasers of caring behaviour in humans”.

Sadly, this was not the case with the abandoned five-week-old kittens featured in the Mercury (“Kittens are dumped next to ‘racetrack’ country road”, Mercury, September 28).

This action was not only cruel and irresponsible but unnecessary, as there are many organisations that can help with unwanted pets, such as the Cat Action Trust mentioned in the article and which had, at the time of the article, found and rescued two of the kittens.

A reminder about cat reproduction seems in order. A female cat can have up to three litters a year each with an average of four to six kittens. She can reproduce from five months of age. (I fostered a cat who gave birth when she was barely seven months old, still a kitten herself).

Spaying is advised by four months of age. An unspayed female and her unneutered offspring can produce between 370,000 and 420,000 cats in seven years.

Male cats should also be neutered, which not only prevents pregnancies but is beneficial to the health and welfare of cats. Cats Protection estimates there are nine million stray cats and one-and-a-half million feral cats in the UK.

In 2018, 19,233 cats were abandoned across England, maybe more who were not found. In the same year a total of 28,986 cats were taken to the RSPCA. The number included sick strays and those signed over because of neglect or part of a cruelty prosecution case.

It is an offence to abandon a cat under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1986 and there is no excuse for such action.

Please help cats prevent pregnancies by having them neutered. This not only reduces the overpopulation of cats but helps reduce the numbers in animal welfare organisations needing homes.

Elizabeth Allison, Aylestone