Would Chemical Sterilization End Shelter Euthanasia of Cats?

“In the United States, 30 million feral cats roam the streets. Euthanizing the animals is costly and morally repugnant. Surgical sterilizations works, but it is expensive and difficult to implement. A kind of animal contraception would be welcome. And now someone is willing to pay for it. Billionaire inventor Gary Michelson has pledged $75 million to fix the feral pet problem. Most of the money is aimed at paying for research, but a big chunk will be awarded for the developer of the first solution that meets the award criteria: it has to be a onetime treatment that lasts for the animal’s life time. (See http://tiny.cc/pets352 for more information).” --Mensa Bulletin March 2010

I don’t want to rain on Mr. Michelson’s parade. I truly wish more billionaires were willing to fund pro-active cat sterilization – and would stand up and state publically that the time-worn practice of shelter euthanasia is morally repugnant. It’s been clear for a long time that pro-active sterilization of cats and dogs is not only the more humane way to lower populations, it’s also more effective. Yet the bulk of private donations and tax dollars that go into companion animal welfare is used to construct and maintain animal control shelters – vestiges of the 1950’s who typically kill as many or more cats and dogs as they adopt out with little funding left over for pro-active sterilization, so free and accessible cat and dog sterilization has never been fully tested.

So, while I wholeheartedly support Mr. Michelson’s desire to find a magic bullet to fix all cats, I wonder if he’s underestimating how difficult this will be using chemical means. No, not the invention of the drug – chemical sterilization should be well within reach scientifically. But, how do you administer it to feral cats? They are afraid of people, nocturnal, and untouchable. I suppose you could put it in their food, but how do you handle dosing? Cats eat communally and come in all different sizes – so won’t you run a risk of overdosing some, under-dosing others – and potentially missing the ones that are out roaming on the day you sterilize them? Would the same drug work for males and females? If not, how would you separate them to fix them? If you tried to dose them over more than one feeding session, how do you keep the ones already sterilized from being fixed a second time?   What if an already surgically-sterilized cat is in the group -- what's the effect of chemically repeating the process?

With tactical problems like these, you would probably have to live-trap them and anesthetize them in order to ensure accurate dosage – and you’d need to ear-tip the cats to prevent re-doing them at a later date. Since a major part of the surgical spay/neuter cost is the anesthesia –by the time you pay for the designer drug -- and to anesthetize the cats to dose and ear-tip them – you’re cost advantage may be long-gone.

And – most importantly – the reason spay/neuter is so critical is not only because it prevents more kittens but because it also alters the cat’s behaviors and personalities. This is what allows them to live indoors with people. Will the drug prevent cat spraying, fighting and yowling(as surgery does) or just kittening? If not, if a caregiver wants to take a chemically-sterilized cat home to live with them, will it be the same as living with a surgically-sterilized cat or an intact cat? Let’s hope – if and when someone wins Mr. Michelson’s prize – the criteria they use for designing it goes beyond that stated in the offer. Or, maybe the $75 million could be better spent moving us toward a community that provides free accessible spay/neuter for all cats – friendly and feral – and let the problem take care of itself.