ABSTRACT
There has been concern that early castration of pedigree kittens may lead to a depletion of gene pools. Web-based questionnaires on early castration were distributed to breeders and cat rescue organisations. One of the reasons that breeders used early castration was to counteract what they considered irresponsible breeding, such as overuse of strains within the breed or production of cross-breeds. Of all pedigree kittens, 45.1% were kept intact while 54.9% were neutered before re-homing. Nineteen (65.5%) of the cat rescue organisations believed that early castration could be beneficial in reducing the number of homeless cats, but only six (20.6%) had applied early castration. Three organisations replied that their veterinarian declined to do early castration and two believed that it was not safe for the kittens. There does not, necessarily, seem to be conflicting interests between keeping genetic variation in pedigree breeds and the possibility of limiting the population of homeless cats.
