I'm a responsible pet owner, and I'd like my cat to have one litter before I spay her. What's wrong with that?

We understand the desire to let your pet become a parent. Some people want their children to learn about the miracle of birth by watching the family pet have a litter. Baby animals are also adorable, of course, and many people even believe that a animal must become a parent in order to mature properly. While this belief is completely untrue (in fact, many animals develop neuroses when their children are taken from them), we understand and appreciate the sentiment behind it.

It is our affection for young animals, in fact, that makes us so passionately opposed to pet owners allowing their companions to have "just one litter." Because of overpopulation, we are forced to euthanize wonderful puppies and kittens almost every day, and we hate doing it.

We often must euthanize entire litters whose owners were trying to teach children about birth, or who were trying to give their pets a "natural" life. These owners have not considered what their abandonment of the puppies or kittens will teach their children about the value of living beings, or how the abrupt loss of her young will affect the mother. And even when owners are able to find homes for an entire litter, these are homes that might otherwise have been available to the animals at the shelter.

We cannot escape the math. Each extra pet brought into the world will, as long as we have a pet overpopulation problem, represent one animal that will be euthanized. Please have your pets sterilized today.

Finally, note that in Asheville and most other areas of Buncombe County , pet owners are required by law either to have their animals altered by the age of six months or to obtain an unaltered animal permit for each animal they do not have spayed or neutered. These permits cost $100 per animal, and help defray the cost of animal control services.