Most people agree that increasing the spay/neuter rate of cats in the United States is a worthy goal, and a growing number of communities are considering legislation to accomplish this result. Mandatory spay/ neuter legislation (MSN) is frequently discussed, but a look at the demographics of the cat population shows that this approach would not be effective at raising the overall cat neuter rate. The fundamental problem with MSN is that it targets only the pet cat population82% of which is already spayed or neuteredwhile ignoring that a potentially equally large stray and feral cat population exists, less than 3% of which is neutered. Furthermore, MSN is counterproductive; it spends limited public resources on administrative expenses instead of on spay/neuter programs.