This is a continuation from yesterday’s post
MYTH FIVE: “I want my dog to be protective.”
Spay and Neuter does not affect a dog’s natural instinct to protect home and family. A dog’s personality is formed more by genetics and environment than by sex hormones. The only changes in behavior you’ll see are positive ones.
Tom cats tend to reduce their territorial spraying depending upon the age they are neutered. If neutered young enough, before they begin spraying, they may never develop the behavior.
Neutered male cats and dogs fight less, resulting in fewer battle scars, contagious diseases such as Feline Leukemia and horrible abscesses.
And since they aren’t interested in pursuing females in heat, they also wander less, greatly reducing their chances of being hit by a car or getting lost.
MYTH SIX: “I don’t want my male dog or cat to feel like less of a male.”
Pets don’t have any concept of sexual identity or ego – HUMANS DO!
He doesn’t suffer any kind of emotional reaction or identity crisis when neutered – HUMANS project that onto them.
If your dog’s balls mean so much to YOU, and you have the resources to spend, consider Neuticles. </sarcasm>
However, you might consider getting a larger pair for yourself, and give your dog a break!
When I worked with a city shelter in the San Francisco Bay Area, I witnessed a young man trying to pick up his lost dog from the pound.
It was an intact pitbull. Very sweet – his owner not so much. He was informed that they wouldn’t release an un-neutered pit, and that by claiming the dog, he had to get the animal neutered within a certain time frame. He made a huge scene about how his beloved dog can’t be neutered. He couldn’t have his “baby’s balls cut off….”
The argument went on for a while.
He finally said – “F*ck it – keep the stupid dog!!” – and stomped out.
Left his beloved dog, his baby there, on death row. Now jumped from “stray” up the death row chart to “owner legal online generic levitra india pharmacy xanax surrender”. Needless to say – this once beloved baby was destroyed.
Why did I not do anything. Because our rescue was already over capacity, boarding dogs because foster homes were full and I personally had a house full of orphaned “wonders of birth”-kittens to foster.
There are no resources.
Volunteers are hard to come by, and the ones shelters and rescues are so very lucky to have are exhausted!
MYTH SEVEN: “It’s too expensive to have my pet spayed or neutered.”
The cost of spaying or neutering depends on the sex, size, and age of the pet, your veterinarian’s fees, and a number of other variables.
But whatever the actual price, spay or neuter surgery is a one-time cost; a relatively small cost when compared to all the benefits.
It’s a bargain compared to the cost of having a litter and ensuring the health of the mother and litter; two months of pregnancy and another two months until the litter is weaned can add up to significant veterinary bills and food costs if complications develop. Most important, it’s a very small price to pay for the health of your pet and the prevention of the births of more unwanted pets.
Many counties offer free or low cost spay/neuter clinics or vouchers.
Contact your local shelter for more information. If it turns out that there are no resources in your area, consider getting involved in you community, and help organize a yearly event. Thanks to social networking it is getting easier and easier setting up events and get the word out.
Use this tool!
Remember to BE THE CHANGE – don’t wait for others to do it for you!
Fix your pets, educate your friends and family, and don’t forget to you join us on Facebook and invite others to do so, that way we can network and delegate the resources each of us has to offer.
Thanks to Misha Dickerson, Jedi Master of the Let’s Adopt US blog
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Thanks for a very well-written and factual list. I’ll add a few more here:
1) Neutered housepets live, on average, 2 more years than unneutered ones. Even the top breeding dogs on earth are neutered by their 7th birthday to cut the risk of testicular cancer, and many breeders do it much sooner than that. The sooner you neuter, (6 months or under), the longer they live.
2) Neutering doesn’t cause weight gain in itself. However, note that a neutered animal needs about 30% less calories than an unneutered one. So a neutered animal actually represents a cost savings in food for the next 15 years. This alone more than pays for neutering.
3) In Istanbul, each belediye provides a free clinic to neuter dogs and cats. In Kadikoy, you must call their clinic in Fikirtepe at 8 a.m. on Monday, and all appointments are assigned by 8:10 a.m. I took two 6 month old kittens there last month–a male and female. The surgery was done and they were ready to go in less than 30 minutes. I was sure it must be some sort of butchery. Instead, the cats were walking around, playing, and seemed quite pain free later the same day. We kept them in the house for 2 weeks, and they had a super easy recovery, with no scarring, no itching, no bleeding. They didn’t even seem to notice they’d had surgery. My own vet looked at the sutures, and said the surgery had been done by a very expert veterinary surgeon. She said one of her ex-professors from Istanbul University Vet School is working at the Kadikoy clinic–maybe it was that woman.
The surgery is free. They tried to talk me out of neutering the male (I think they want to save money), but did both of the cats for free. I can see their point that only spaying females cuts down the population. However, neutered males don’t get into fights or cross streets as much, need fewer calories, and I would assume their lifespan on the streets will be much increased.
Thanks For the article. İ have been preaching spay- neuter for years . The neutering is the hardest to get men to understand; they act as if you want to cut their bits off’!!
It is a fact that most of the dogs that are lying dead beside the highway are intact male dogs that were seeking female dogs in heat when they were hit.
Having a male dog neutered, keeps the dog at home and not out roaming the streets looking for females in heat. It does nothing to the dog’s temperment.
As for spaying females it helps to keep every intact male from a half mile radius winding up at your house seeking the female in heat, often causing fights and dogs to get hit by vehicles.
Spaying and neutering also keeps unwanted pets out of the animal shelters where they are held a short period of time and then euthanized.