Spaying and Neutering Research Paper

Spaying and Neutering Research Paper

  • Submitted By: x0shawny0x
  • Date Submitted: 01/13/2009 5:30 PM
  • Category: English
  • Words: 2499
  • Page: 10
  • Views: 1036

Spaying and Neutering: It’s for the Dogs … and the Cats

Rarely does one nod one’s head in approval at the thought of surgically removing testicles. Removing the ovaries and uterus remains similarly unheralded – except for when we clarify that we mean to chip away at the sexual organs of animals – all for the sake of the expensive oriental rug that sprawls across the living room floor as luxuriously as a furry Fido or a purring Princess. Indeed, in the back of our neighbors’ judgmental minds lurks the suspicion that we pet owners aim to spay our female animals or neuter our male creatures solely because of selfish human reasons. After all, not only may a female dog in heat ruin a rug, but also an intact dog is reportedly a threat to small children in the house; testosterone surges, and presto, junior’s arm is in the seething teeth of man’s best friend. Granted, sparing one’s children is hardly deemed a selfish human desire, yet we still dismiss the fact that “[t]he age of three is prime time for an intact male dog to be involved with a terrible tragedy, such as … kill[ing] children” when we admit that “[o]bviously, not all intact male dogs are aggressive child-killers” (Davis). In a fit of projection, we humans tend to personalize the medical matter of spaying and neutering, as if our own reproductive organs – let alone sex life and hunting skills – were on the line. But research shows that expert after expert believes that it is for the sake of the animal that we allow and perform these surgical procedures. Indeed, keeping an animal intact may be more selfish, for people who want to breed dogs or cats for show are typically those who oppose state-mandated neutering programs, which – together with educational programs—have been responsible for the fact that about 75 percent of dogs and cats have been neutered or spayed (Woolf). With mostly competitive breeders and other extremists policing the privates of animals to keep them intact, a second look at the more...

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