Early Spaying and Neutering
| by: docmike | 2009-04-06 21:44:54 |
 Who benefits from early spaying and neutering? Not the pet! 
In days gone by, when you adopted a very young dog or cat from a shelter or humane society you signed a contract agreeing to have your new pet spayed or neutered when it was six months old. Failure to do so resulted in a fine and embarrassment for the errant pet owner. But that was in a time when folks were generally trustworthy, usually kept their word, and were capable of feeling shame, guilt, and remorse. As people became more jaded and bottom-line oriented, the rules began to change. Since the fine for failing to keep the contract was less than the cost of the surgery and since getting hauled into court was viewed as a minor inconvenience, more and more people reneged on the adoption contract terms. As the pet over-population problem increased and the development of human conscience decreased, shelters and humane societies developed a new strategy: early spay and neuter programs. Pets as young as eight weeks of age were given a general anesthetic and then major surgery in the form of spaying or neutering. In this manner, they would avoid the whole personal responsibility question. Why was this? Was there a medical benefit to the pet? Absolutely not! In fact, the risks to the puppy or kitten were magnified by their young age. The anesthetic insult to the body is greater for a younger pet. At eight weeks of age many pets are parasitized by intestinal worms, adding even more physical stress and delaying recovery. At that young age, they can not have finished (some haven’t even begun) their routine vaccinations but are in full contact at the spay/neuter facility with older pets which may expose the young ones to fatal diseases. Even exposure to diseases normally not fatal can result in catastrophe when the young pet’s body has been weakened by the surgery. When this situation was first developing, I sent a letter to a humane society and questioned the wisdom of the program. The humane society had their staff veterinarian phone me so we could speak doctor to doctor and he could assuage my fears. In the course of telling me how wonderful he believed early spaying and neutering to be he added: “besides . . . . it’s not like we have a shortage of puppies and kittens”. I asked him if he realized that he had just said, in effect, if they die, they die . . . no big deal . . . . we have plenty! He vehemently denied having said such a thing, but we both knew he had. I reminded him that in the real world, when a client comes to see me for a spay or neuter, they are fairly attached to the pet and do not have such a cavalier attitude about the possible outcome. So what is the answer? Stop making the innocent dog or cat pay for the irresponsibility of the pet owner. Put some teeth into the adoption contract. Make the fine for non-compliance mean something. Raise the fine for failing to have the pet spayed or neutered several hundred dollars and then prosecute scofflaws. If it costs $200 to spay the dog and $500 plus court costs to not spay the dog, fewer people would ignore the terms of the adoption contract.
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