Hiya Dr. Ferox, I have a question abt spay/neuter, particularly in domestic pets. I work in a shelter and firmly believe all pets should be fixed, no matter how 'pretty' they are. I also believe most purebreds should be fixed, and breeding "for standard" should only be done if breeding towards better health. So model standards (ie a french bulldog w/a very short snout) should be fixed regardless. Honestly, I'm tired of people w purebreds saying sterilization=mutilation. What are your thoughts?
Due to their fecundity, we need something like 90% or more of our dog and cat populations to be desexed to control their population. There are simply more dogs and cats out there than have homes available for them and working in a shelter you’re likely to see the worst aspects of that fact: animals that are dumped, that languish without a home, and that are ultimately euthanised because their lives are not deemed desirable enough.
The obvious solution to this is to desex more pets, until all those needing a home already have one. Breeding adds to the problem, and it is a significant one that wears heavy on minds and hearts of the front line workers.
Breeders of purebred dogs, especially those that are exceedingly popular today like German Shepherds, pugs, and French Bulldogs, have absolutely no problem at all finding homes for their pups, often with a price tag of thousands of dollars. Of course they’re not going to see the pet overpopulation problem the same way, and why would they? They can’t even meet the current demand.
And because they’re so proud of these dogs, universally, many take it an a personal insult when you say they should be desexed, not just to their personal sensibilities because you’re saying their pride and joy is ‘bad’, but to their wallet.
And yes, I know the ‘breeding is expensive’ argument in regards to health testing but I also know a lot of breeders, particularly of the small brachycephalic breeds, are not doing it. French bulldogs in particular are a real money spinner right now with pups going for around $3500, so guess what puppy farms are breeding now?
I would argue, and do, frequently, that sterilisation is not mutilation. It’s done for the animal’s benefit, not just population control.
But as I was doing a dental procedure on the pug the other day, one with no discernible nose to speak of, stenotic nares, a muzzle so shortened that none of his teeth were normal and most rotated on a 90 degree angle to fit in the skull, with a trachea two or three sizes too small, a long soft palate and such a crowded, fleshy mess at the back of the throat, I wonder who’s benefit it is to create dogs like this. It’s certainly not the dog’s benefit. It’s not even my benefit as a veterinarian.
We’ve taken perfectly good animals and pushed them so far down the path of extreme morphology in a short period of time so that they’re barely functional and almost certainly suffering compared to the average member of the species. And I cringe inwardly when I look at them. There’s still a mind in that body the same as any other dog, but that body is severely defective.
You could argue that the extreme forms we have bred these dogs into is really the mutilation, even though no blade was used.
