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Why responsible breeders neuter their pets?

This is a great article on neutering and explains my feelings about spay/neuter and responsible breeding very well. I have edited the article due to length.
After the article I have included a list of veterinary references for early spay/neuter. NOTE: This addition is by the site owner and not part of the copyrighted article below.

Note: "Moggy" , a term used frequently in this article, is the UK term for a random-bred cat (alley-cat, mutt-cat, mongrel, etc.).

I am sure that readers involved in cat welfare are dismayed at excuses for not neutering. This is a too-frequently encountered attitude which hinders cat welfare work. The current overpopulation problem is already disgraceful and to add further kittens to this situation is irresponsible.

Firstly, the bleak figures and facts well-known to rescuers.

- More than 1000 healthy, friendly cats and kittens are destroyed daily in Britain simply because they exceed the number of available homes. A visit to a vet engaged in destroying a succession of such cats and kittens is a sobering experience. In some areas, an estimated 80% of healthy kittens are destroyed.

- A single female can be responsible for 25,000 kittens in 5 years, 420,000 over 7 years. U.S. studies show that 36-60% of unneutered pet cats stray within 3 years; often in search of mates or uncontested territory.

- Numerous people take on kittens because they feel emotionally blackmailed by a friend's kittens "needing homes" then decide that they do not want the responsibility of pet ownership. The majority of such kittens do not end up in good, permanant homes.

- US shelter studies show that up to 50% of adopters either failed to have cats neutered or allowed them to have a litter prior to neutering (deliberately, accidentally or "for the children to see the miracle of birth") despite neuter/spay contracts.

- Many refuse-to-neuter owners believe that cat rescue groups will automatically take their unhomed kittens. Rescue groups are innundated and there simply aren't enough spaces in shelters and foster homes to go round. Even when owners insist they find good homes for the offspring there is a limit to the number of family, friends and colleagues on whom kittens can be offloaded.

- Unneutered "naturally breeding" cats are at greater risk of FeLV and FIV infection. Both are spread by bites including the mating tom's neck grip bite which can break skin. Neutering reduces the likelihood of fighting and eliminates mating, greatly reducing the risk of FeLV/FIV. There is no vaccine against FIV. Far from ensuring the vigour of the species, natural breeding ensures that deadly viruses become widespread.

- In addition to transmissible disease, unneutered females are at an increased risk of cystic ovaries, pyometra, mammary tumours, calcium depletion and may die during or as a result of kittening.

- As regards the lack of "vilification" of pedigree breeders a pedigree breeder makes her/himself accountable for each life s/he causes to happen. This does not just mean finding homes for kittens - it includes extensive health care for kittens before homing, guarenteeing their continuing health and freedom from genetic problems, a willingness to accept back a kitten if the homing is unsuccessful and, when a deformed kitten is born, making the decision to euthanize it. How many moggy breeders guarantee the same? How many moggy offspring go to new homes vaccinated and with the guarantee of continued health? Even when money changes hands for a moggy kitten, few moggy breeders take their responsibilities as far as to replace a kitten if it develops hereditary problems. Contrary to popular belief, pedigree breeders rarely make a profit, most barely cover their own costs.

More to the point, a responsible professional breeder insists on spay/neuter contracts or early neutering to ensure against proliferation of possibly unwanted, unplaceable offspring. This is not to prevent the buyer from "cutting in on the breeder's business", but is part of the accountability the breeder feels towards the animals s/he has produced and a responsibility to the cat population as a whole. Most pedigree breeders do not want the females they sell/home to end up worn out through continued breeding, nor do they want the males to sire countless litters, on any available female, regardless of the supply of homes for the offspring. They also retire (i.e. spay) breeding queens well before continued reproduction poses a health risk to the cat and similarly, studs are neutered and retired once they have ensured a healthy new generation. Cats which have passed on deleterious genes are also retired to ensure that the genes are spread no further - how many moggy breeders can claim the same? In fact, how many moggy breeders are aware of (or even care about) the genetic health of their own cats and the offspring even in a "controlled" breeding program?

What of concerns that genetic health of the species risks being damaged due to the growing number of "breed" type cats and pedigree breeding continuing this trend? The domestic cat is not a species controlled by natural selection. A big difference between responsible pedigree breeders and moggy breeders is that the former "come clean" about health problems (which is why we hear so much about them) while very few moggy breeders will say "there is a problem with hereditary heart disease in Fluffy's offspring, will everyone please ensure that they do not breed from any of his/her offspring?".

A controlled breeding program is one where the ancestry and genetics of both parents are known and where those carrying serious hereditary defects, even if they don't exhibit the defect themselves, are not bred. The efforts of moggy breeders ensures that they are a renewable resource, easy to obtain and disposable when a kitten loses its appeal. Many products of "controlled moggy breeding" end up in animal shelters.