It is estimated that there are over 100,000 dogs and 2 million cats homeless at any one time in the UK.

Reasons for this include overbreeding and buying animals as gifts without properly understanding how to care for them, which can lead to behavioural problems, prompting people to abandon their pets.

Whilst animals of all kinds are left, forgotten about in shelters, people continue to overbreed animals for their personal financial gain. 

Regardless of how well animals are cared for, buying them instead of adopting from shelters just contributes further to overpopulation, putting a huge strain on sanctuaries who simply do not have the space to take in more abandoned animals.

This petition is proposing a change in the law to make it compulsory for pet owners to spay or neuter their animals to combat the issue of overpopulation and prevent even more pets from being abandoned.

Photo credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/epleitez/1972805716/