Cav's Place

I have a serious problem with spaying and neutering pets. You shouldn’t take away an important part of their lives. For one, you take away their ability to have sex, especially for the males, and I’m sure you wouldn’t like that done to yourself. Then, there are certain behaviors that are triggered by sexual instincts and humans shouldn’t just go in and remove the organs that produce the hormones responsible for those instincts. You change the personality of the animal in question and I’m not sure who you think gave you the right to do so. I’m really serious about this and I’d certainly want anybody who spays or neuters their pet to have the exact same thing done to them!

True, population control is needed, but this is not the way. There are birth control methods for humans, so there are certainly ways to achieve the same effects for other mammals as well. The problem is that companies aren’t interested in developing such products because the expected revenue isn’t that great and because the “they’re just animals” mentality is still prevalent.
And then you have those who claim that spaying and neutering are necessary because these procedures reduce the risk of the animals developing ovarian and testicular cancer, respectively. Of course they reduce, or eliminate actually, that risk, those organs are no longer there! On the same train of thought, anybody who believes that idea is welcome to have their brain removed. It’ll certainly eliminate the risk of a brain tumor, and it doesn’t look like they’re using it anyway!
Bottom line, it’s simply “the way things are done” and most people are used to it. Being used to it, they think it’s the right thing to do and end up supporting these methods because of that. And, since they’re supporting them, saying the methods are wrong is saying that they are wrong. And people really hate being told they’re wrong, which makes change very unlikely.
Luckily, there are people struggling to bring about that change, and they seem to be making progress. Sure hope they will manage to bring such products not only on the market, but into the mainstream, so surgery will be phased out and replaced by methods that more closely resemble what humans might use. Or even keep surgical methods available, but not the ones that are currently in use. There are, after all, surgical procedures used by humans for that purpose as well, but they’re not the same ones that are currently being used on animals.

Like ACC&D’s tagline, “If pets could practice safe sex, they would.” However, that’s exactly my worry with the methods looking to make their way to the market, I don’t think they only affect the animal’s ability to procreate while leaving the behavior pattern untouched. Because if you render the organs useless by chemical means instead of removing them, you don’t accomplish anything. But I think we should take it step by step, so I’ll snap at them over that matter only if my assumption will be proven to be correct.
Another worry is over their focus on permanent sterilization. What if you think you might want puppies or kittens at some later point? Of course, pills or shots that need to be taken frequently to be effective won’t work in the case of pets like they do for humans, because the animal will become very stressed. However, shots that are effective for a few months would be a good idea if you ask me. And they’d also be less likely to have significant negative side effects, since the dosage would naturally be smaller. I’m wary of implants or shots that are effective for a longer amount of time, as in a few years, because cats and dogs live far less than humans do. If an implant that’s effective for 2 to 5 years is a viable solution for a human, giving them plenty of time to change their mind later, that amount of time means something entirely different for a pet.
Of course, considering the current population of dogs and cats, especially the strays, most of them should be permanently sterilized. But the focus on permanent methods bothers me because it doesn’t give people a choice, it is either permanent or not at all. And that would certainly make some choose to avoid such methods just like they avoid the existing ones, even when they never actually intend to let their pets procreate. It’s just an issue of having a choice.

But any step forward is a step forward, and such initiatives should be supported as much as possible. We need to stop thinking of animals as lesser beings at our disposal and start thinking of them as beings that we share this world with, our little brothers and sisters. Since we claim to be more intelligent and obviously are more developed and stronger as a whole than they are, we need to care more and do more for them! Especially since we’re the reason they’re in their current plight in the first place. If people wouldn’t abandon their pets, there wouldn’t be strays to control in the first place!