Dog Spay and Neuter: Discussion

[patandchickens]

Quote:
If all your animals go through their entire lives without accidental breedings, that's fine.

An awfully huge number of unneutered cats/dogs DON'T, however. And their mortality rate (from pregnancy complications and from being hit by car etc whilst chasing the opposite sex) has just *got* to be much higher than the extremely low rate of death during spay/neuter surgery, although I cannot cite numbers offhand.

So as a general policy to advocate, I still think spay-neuter is the most sensible and HUMANE, FOR THE ANIMALS. That does not mean it is the best policy for each and every single individual pet-owner or pet.

JMHO,

Pat

 

[Dar]

Quote:
If all your animals go through their entire lives without accidental breedings, that's fine.

An awfully huge number of unneutered cats/dogs DON'T, however. And their mortality rate (from pregnancy complications and from being hit by car etc whilst chasing the opposite sex) has just *got* to be much higher than the extremely low rate of death during spay/neuter surgery, although I cannot cite numbers offhand.

So as a general policy to advocate, I still think spay-neuter is the most sensible and HUMANE, FOR THE ANIMALS. That does not mean it is the best policy for each and every single individual pet-owner or pet.

JMHO,

Pat

very well said Pat... there are 2 unaltered males across the street from me and we hear the screeching of tires all the time when they have escaped to run after my other neighbors intact female when she is in heat. Lat year one car connected and they lost a dog because of it

 

[redhen]

My mastiff got VERY sick when he was fixed... he was throwing up daily and lost a bit more than 15 lbs in a week...
He had to go back to the vets and have stomach meds and special diet after surgery..
he didnt handle surgery well at all..poor guy..

 

[Rare Feathers Farm]

Quote:
A lot of the giant breeds are sensitive to anesthesia. When Brodee (our Borzoi) had to be stitched up from his coyote killing excursion, the vet only did local on him. Also, when Cash (our 1/2 Anatolian was neutered) the vet only gave him a local, too! Poor guy! LOL

 

[Rare Feathers Farm]

Personally, I think that if you're not showing and you're not breeding registered, high-quality animals, you should do the responsible thing and spay/neuter your dog.

In-tact dogs wander. They tend to be more aggressive and less apt to mind.

There are far too many unwanted mutts out there (and yes, purebreds, too!) that need good homes.

For example, we have an in-tact Borzoi. He's that way because he's a show dog. He finished his championship last spring and now we're waiting for his breeder to find him a suitable um...female. He is pretty aggressive towards Cash. He CLIMBS out of the kennel in search of female dogs. We put a wire roof on it AND electric to keep him in. He cannot be left unsupervised outside for more than a few minutes or he wanders away. As soon as he's done at the Eukanuba this year, his breeder/handler is collecting him and we're neutering him. Then he has to wait until he's 7 to be shown again as a "senior dog." He'll be 5 this June.

That's just MY opinion from what I've seen/heard/experienced.

 

[bagendhens]

personally i take stray dogs to my local NO KILL shelter because they are better equipt than i am to find that dogs owners or properly rehome it...

for example, a couple of days ago iw as comming home and a poodle comes running across the road, i stop coax her over and she hops in my car.
i dont own a microchip scanner, and while she was wearing a collar had no tags, the vet was closed and the only place local that had the scanner was the shelter...
so i took her there. they scanned her, invalid chip, took my name and number and i sighned a form requesting i be kept informed if the dog was not claimed before the 7 day hold was up...

i have 6 dogs at home, i dont know if this dog was dog agressive, up to date on shots, a stray, a dump case, or anything...
i have no way to seperate a 7th dog in quarrentein in my house without putting my own dogs at risk...
not to mention this girl was obviously well looked after, nicely groomed ect, how the heck would her owner find ME? just some random stranger? not everyone has internet, mabe they wernt from the area? ect.
people when they loose a dog tend to check shelters pounds and vets first...

on the way home i saw a woman on the side of the road in hysterics, her back windo was smashed as was the side of the car...
i pulled over and upon talking to her she was more worried about her dog who had upon the accident the plastic travel crate had poped open and shed panicked and dove out fo the smashed window...

she was in hysterics, mid panic attack, this dog was her baby, she was from 5 states away traveling through for a dog show...
she was calling all the numbers she could...but thankfully upon seeing the picture i knew EXACTLY where her dog was and could help them reunite...

had i had taken that dog home, that poor woman might not have found her!

not all shelters just take strays and kill them...

but thats completly off topic.

as for responsible breeding my personal opinion is responsible breeding is breeding to BETTER a breed and preserv it.

if you want to cross your great pyr and your standard poodle in attempts to make a low shedding flock guardian as long as your temperment and ehalth tesintg, proving the breeding dogs worthy and breeding to creat something BETTER than is already there...i perosnally have no problems with it.
responsible breeders of any kind do not add to the over population because they will not knowingly allow one of thier "products" to randomly re-produce, wander of join the shelter population. most responsibe breeders are also involved in rescue.

 

[LV426]

All of my current pets are neutered or spayed except my reptiles and my new bunny and that's only because my bunny is too young to be neutered but his appt is set for June.

Why do I spay and Neuter? Because while I and everyone else on this board may be a responsible pet owner, there are far too many pet owners that are irresponsible and do not take care of their animals.

It only takes one un-neutered mutt to ruin an entire breeding line. One un-neutered tom cat to create a litter of unwanted kittens that no one wants or if they do want they take and then send outside to breed more and more.

I've seen intact male dogs chew through walls and fences to get to a female in heat. I've seen 4 and 5 males mounting each other with one female dog in heat at the bottom. She was in a 6 foot chain link fence. The male dogs scaled the fence and got into the yard.

I've heard tom cats yowling outside my window for my unaltered female cat that had gone into heat. She was soon fixed after her first heat but she tried like the dickens to get out. She clawed through a screen and bailed out a second story window to get to the toms waiting below. Thankfully I caught her before the act could be completed.

I spay and neuter because not everyone is responsible. And feral dogs and cats are not meant to run and live out side of domestication. They live horrid lives filled with disease and illness and injury. Hit by cars, shot by kids with BB guns. Shot by farmers who think they are protecting their territory. Shot by people who feel threatened when a pack of dogs goes on the attack because they are starving because they have no prey to eat, because they aren't meat to live this way.

For an example of feral cats gone bad just look at Australia. Native wildlife depleted by hunting cats and disease spread like wildfire. It's a harsh and cruel existence for a pet to be dumped and then the young suffer because they are being raised in harsh conditions with little food, disease and parasites running rampant, and humans out to kill them. In my own back alley I've seen Male cats torn and bloody and dripping with infection. I've found kittens in my back alley, their mom so wild she would attack me if I came near but all of the kittens blind because of fleas that got into their eyes and ate the fluids. Kittens starving because their mom couldn't find enough food to keep her milk flowing. Crying night after night with hollow tummies and ribs sticking out like tree branches in winter.

So I rounded all the cats in the neighborhood up in the feral cat program and we spayed, neutered, and got them all their shots and released them. I now provide food along with three others so no one starves. They get flea treatments every three months and rabies shots ever 2 years. They've been tagged and we do our best to keep their lives as humane as possible although one guy down the street takes pot shots at them when they go near his bird feeder. We get them medical care when we can, and when they are hit by cars as several cats have been I give them a burial and not just a bag tossed in the garbage.

So when someone comes along and say that spaying and neutering is evil I have to say that no, it's a kindness, especially when it prevents the helpless and innocent from dying a horrible horrible death.

Yes spaying and neutering is a human invention but the world is not as it was when the first wolf and the first cats were domesticated. The checks and balances of nature are no longer in existence. Yes because of humans. So it behooves the whole race and ever other species that we do our best to limit the numbers of animals that have to die and suffer because of our current lifestyle. And even the most responsible pet owner can still have an accident with their pet. To me it's not worth risking that I might end up with pets that I can't ensure a good home for and I can't keep them all.


P.S. Some animals are indeed ruled by hormones and can become more aggressive which neutering and/or spaying does help. Rabbits are one of those.

 

[wishful]

I think this thread is quite interesting. I'd obviously always heard about how it's good to spay and neuter, but I'd never really heard about the negative consequences that could occur as well. From reading the articles that were posted, it looks like there's no medical reason to neuter males (or that the risks outweigh the benefits, at any rate) which I found interesting. Makes me think I may wait until they're two years old or so to spay males when I get a dog.

For those of you who do wait two years or so and then neuter (or wait a while to spay) is the later fixing just for convenience? Like to not have to deal with a dog in heat/a dog trying to escape to one who is? Or is there a medical reason to spay and that medical reason outweighs the risks once you've waited long enough?

 

[gritsar]

Question for those that say only "quality" animals should be bred. Who decides what a quality specimen is? The breed organization? The AKC? Personally I wouldn't own a GSD that the AKC deems to be the cream of the crop. So slouched down in the hindquarters they look like they're dragging the ground. Same goes for other breeds that come to mind; the pug, the english bulldog, etc. etc.
So who decides?

 

[rancher hicks]

Haven't read all the threads and don't need to. I would mandate spaying and neutering of all cats and dogs, and/or require owners of those not spayed or neutered to pay a fee/ fine. Unfortunately the majority of owners are NOT responsible and the rest of us should not have to pay. The shelters are overflowing. The animal lovers are not providing for these animals and I don't think the rest of society should have to pay. Unless of course it is to uthenize the uncared for. I would rather spend my hard earned money on things I choose not you. This is another case of the rest of society having to pay for what others want. Shelters should be emptied every six months until the flow of unwanted and uncared for animals ceases.