Placing homeless street dogs in a shelter where they receive food and veterinary care is good, but preventing the need for a shelter is even better. Uncontrolled breeding is the biggest reason there are so many dogs on our streets. That is why sterilization is such an important part of this program. Bashkia Shkodër encourages all animal groups and citizens to sterilize the dogs and cats in their care.
Besides preventing unwanted births, sterilization has many health benefits for the animals. For example, it can prevent sexually transmitted diseases such as Canine Transmissible Venereal Tumor (CTVT) between males and females; it can prevent pyometra which causes cervical cancer in females; and it can prevent infected mothers from passing viruses such as herpes to her offspring.
Sterilization can help reduce dog bites because sterilized males become calmer over time and sterilized females wouldn’t have to be extra-protective of any puppies. It can also reduce traffic accidents because sterilized dogs will stop roaming the streets looking for mates.
Many puppies and kittens — either born on the streets or abandoned — die due to extreme temperatures, hunger and thirst, traffic accidents, and illnesses due to viruses, bacteria or parasites. Witnessing such sufferings can be very stressful and traumatic, especially for children and animal lovers. Therefore, besides physical safety, sterilization can also improve the mental health of our community.
As for the dogs in our shelters, we hope sterilization will also increase their chances of being adopted.
Since April 25, 2024, the program has sterilized 124 male dogs and 137 female dogs for a total of 261 new sterilizations.