Tails of Marin: Why spay and neuter pets? Numbers tell the story

In six years, one female dog and her offspring can be the source of 67,000 puppies.

[Luke Thomas]

Please sign my Petition for a low cost_free spay/neuter state law. This collects surcharges from animal cruelty or any animal ordinance violation (also suggested is a VOLUNTARY check mark when renewing driver's license to donate a dollar toward spay/neutering). FREE and dirt cheap spay/neutering will get more people to sterilize their pets to combat overpopulation than any concept of mandatory. CONSIDER the fact that it is ILLEGAL to dump or abandon their pet. People do it all the time. So they won't listen to any mandate. Free and dirt cheap spay/neuterings means more will. Here is the Petition-it is GENERIC so it will apply for all 50 States!

http://www.change.org/actions/view/affordable...

[MaryJo]

The lies, half truths and failure to tell the truth abounds in this story. I will just touch on a few and let others find the rest. First of all the reason why CA has the highest number of people bitten is because CA has the most people of any state. Of course the shear number of bites in CA would be higher then say, the state of Rode Island.
Actually s/n can make your pet fat and lazy. There is documented proof that s/n causes low thyroid levels. Low thyroid=fat and lazy, not to mention poor skin and coat. All of my s/n dogs developed low thyroid, a condition they did not suffer from before they were s/n.
All of the behaviors that the article mentions, aggression, roaming, marking, etc can be prevented by people. Dogs are a reflection of their owners. Owners allow agression, roaming and marking. I have intact males and I know for a fact that there are intact females just a few house down from me. My male never acted aggressive, tried to roam or marked when they were in season. I know because he has never done that in the 8 years he has been alive. I have good fences and I don't allow him to even think about lifing a leg where I don't want him to. The same goes for being aggressive. I know dog body language and I know way before any overt behavior starts and I curb it from even happening, which is very rare.
It is true that older intact males can develope prostate infections. It is also very true that neutered males are at great risk for prostate CANCER. I know, my male, neutered at 3 died last year due to TCC in the prostate. His only risk factor for this horrible cancer which kills by not allowing the dog to empty his bladder was being neutered. Neutering and spaying greatly INCREASES the risk of a number of 100% always fatal, always painful CANCERS. S/N is not the benign, risk free major surgery that it is being touted here.
The "fact" that unaltered dogs are 3x more likely to bite is hogwash. That "fact" has been repeated so many times that it has become accepted as true without looking at what is behind that fact. Just like the "fact" that pit bulls have 2000 psi jaw pressure. It is just not true. Now there is a very good, well done study completed recently out of CO which shows that both S/N and intact dogs had the equal number of bites. http://www.livingsafelywithdogs.org/ is a very good read and I do hope that some of you will actually read it and realize that a great deal of "facts" about dogs and dog bites are really false.
One thing that Marin shelters can do to reduce the number of dogs that they euthanize is to stop importing dogs from out of state and out of the country. Not long ago there was a story about the shelter bringing in about 150 dogs from AZ. In just two days nearly 100 of them were adopted. This wasn't the first or last time the shelter has opened their doors to foreign dogs. If they claim to have too many dogs, it is because they bring in too many dogs from out of the area. Higher shelter numbers equal bigger budgets and bigger donations, not to mention job security.

[Nardis]

MaryJo wrote:

The lies, half truths and failure to tell the truth abounds in this story. I will just touch on a few and let others find the rest. First of all the reason why CA has the highest number of people bitten is because CA has the most people of any state. Of course the shear number of bites in CA would be higher then say, the state of Rode Island.
Actually s/n can make your pet fat and lazy. There is documented proof that s/n causes low thyroid levels. Low thyroid=fat and lazy, not to mention poor skin and coat. All of my s/n dogs developed low thyroid, a condition they did not suffer from before they were s/n.
All of the behaviors that the article mentions, aggression, roaming, marking, etc can be prevented by people. Dogs are a reflection of their owners. Owners allow agression, roaming and marking. I have intact males and I know for a fact that there are intact females just a few house down from me. My male never acted aggressive, tried to roam or marked when they were in season. I know because he has never done that in the 8 years he has been alive. I have good fences and I don't allow him to even think about lifing a leg where I don't want him to. The same goes for being aggressive. I know dog body language and I know way before any overt behavior starts and I curb it from even happening, which is very rare.
It is true that older intact males can develope prostate infections. It is also very true that neutered males are at great risk for prostate CANCER. I know, my male, neutered at 3 died last year due to TCC in the prostate. His only risk factor for this horrible cancer which kills by not allowing the dog to empty his bladder was being neutered. Neutering and spaying greatly INCREASES the risk of a number of 100% always fatal, always painful CANCERS. S/N is not the benign, risk free major surgery that it is being touted here.
The "fact" that unaltered dogs are 3x more likely to bite is hogwash. That "fact" has been repeated so many times that it has become accepted as true without looking at what is behind that fact. Just like the "fact" that pit bulls have 2000 psi jaw pressure. It is just not true. Now there is a very good, well done study completed recently out of CO which shows that both S/N and intact dogs had the equal number of bites. http://www.livingsafelywithdogs.org/ is a very good read and I do hope that some of you will actually read it and realize that a great deal of "facts" about dogs and dog bites are really false.
One thing that Marin shelters can do to reduce the number of dogs that they euthanize is to stop importing dogs from out of state and out of the country. Not long ago there was a story about the shelter bringing in about 150 dogs from AZ. In just two days nearly 100 of them were adopted. This wasn't the first or last time the shelter has opened their doors to foreign dogs. If they claim to have too many dogs, it is because they bring in too many dogs from out of the area. Higher shelter numbers equal bigger budgets and bigger donations, not to mention job security.

There are too many unwanted cats and in this county. They need to stop having babies.

Please refer me to any peer reviewed publications that support s/n being linked to hypothyroidism and cancers

[Benji Mason]

Nardis wrote:

<quoted text>
There are too many unwanted cats and in this county. They need to stop having babies.
Please refer me to any peer reviewed publications that support s/n being linked to hypothyroidism and cancers

What if someone had done that to you.

[melvin holt]

benji dont you have hypothyroidism and cancers on your butt .

[dogs]

"These are just some of 324,333 adoptable pets living with shelters or rescue groups and posted on Petfinder!"
Imagine how many unwanted animals are in shelters and rescues across America.

I support spay and neuter for this reason alone.

Luke, some people will not take the time to get their animals altered, a lot are to lazy to bother regardless of the cost. Often the elderly and disabled have no way of getting their animals to the clinics. I would like to see more mobile units go out in the communities.

Nardia I will agree with you that I am sure that all of the facts regarding s/n is not readily available to the public.