1. To Spay and Neuter or Not To Spay and Neuter
by
Sandra Cash
Professor Bouchard
Crown College
English Composition, Section 111
10 November 2011
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2. In West Virginia, there is an ordinance that pet owners must spay or neuter their
pets by the age of six months, unless the pet is unfit for the procedure, in which case a
veterinarian must state the reason in writing. In order to keep a pet that is not neutered
or spayed, the owner must apply for a permit and pay 50 dollars, unless the owner is a
breeder, who must pay 30 dollars annually. Spaying and neutering for all pets is not
appropriate, because it makes the pet susceptible to some diseases, and because it
encourages breeding of only purebred animals, which will lead to genetic problems.
Spaying and neutering for all pets by the age of six months is not healthy for all
animals. This is especially true of certain dog breeds. For example, Rottweilers that
keep their ovaries until at least six years of age have a greater life expectancy than
those which are spayed at a young age (Coile, 2010, p.20). The owner should talk to
the veterinarian about when would be the appropriate time to spay or neuter the pet,
since breed comes into play as to when it is a good time to do this.
Now not only is age an important factor in the decision of spaying and neutering,
but the owner and veterinarian must also consider if this will make the pet susceptible to
other diseases. Urinary incontinence, which is when a pet cannot to control the flow of
urine, is increased by spaying. As it is, big dogs – classified as a dog that weighs more
than 44 pounds - have a risk of this by 4.9 to 20 percent, but spaying increases the
incidence of this. Thankfully, most dogs respond to treatment, but this is still difficult for
their owners (Coile, 2010, p.21). This is just one example of what difficulties pets can be
susceptible to due to spaying and neutering. More examples would be bladder cancer,
for which survival rates are not good, osteosarcoma, which is a deadly tumor in the
bone, hemangiosarcoma, which is another deadly cancer, and the list goes on and on.
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3. Every pet owner wants their companion to live as long as they can, so should they
make their companion have a shorter life and/or make their pet susceptible to diseases?
The new ordinance also encourages breeding of only purebred animals, which
are prone to many more genetic problems. These genetic problems are due to
inbreeding. Inbreeding happens because the breeder sees perfection in the two dogs
and wants to keep that in the offspring, regardless of the genetic relationship between
the two. Dogs are becoming sicker and sicker due to the genetic problems, in reality
dogs are being bred to death. There are at least 500 inbreeding genetic diseases, and
this keeps increasing as inbreeding continues.
The genetic problems can have a huge range of problems. One example is
neurological problems like Syringomyelia. This is when the brain is too big for the dog’s
skull, and this causes a horrible headache that never goes away. Syringomyelia affects
the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel breed hugely. The only way to help these dogs is to
do a risky operation in which a veterinarian takes out part of the back of the skull so that
the brain can contract with each heartbeat. The likelihood of recovering from this kind of
operation is poor, which is why if a dog has very severe syringomyelia, it is put down.
To add to this, half of Cavaliers by the age of five human years will have heart disease,
which in turn brings about premature death (BBC, 2008). Dr Clare Rusbridge who is a
Veterinary Neurologist said this about inbreeding of Cavaliers in the BBC documentary
Pedigree Dogs Exposed, “You know if you took a stick and beat a dog to get this pain
that syringomyelia created you’d be prosecuted, but there is nothing to stop you
breeding a dog that can be that painful.”
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4. Inbreeding is endangering some breeds. For example, there are some 10,000
purebred Pugs, but among all of those, only 50 will be genetically different. If we keep
inbreeding dogs, they will come to a point where they cannot reproduce and we will lose
our dogs. As proof of this, English Bulldogs can no longer mate or give birth on their
own, due to all the inbreeding that has occurred. In addition, a comparison of pictures of
German Shepherd from history and pictures of the same breed from today shows that
there is a deformity developing from inbreeding. The deformity affects their backbone,
and these dogs cannot support their back legs. Judges now describe the Show German
Shepherd as half dog, half frog (BBC, 2008).
Inbreeding has produced a much greater risk of cancer in these pets. For
Scottish Terriers the risk of bladder cancer is 18 times greater than in other dogs.
Every time inbreeding occurs, the chances of cancer increase ("Dogs that changed the
world," 2007). These are just a few of the genetic problems, which are too many to list
for this paper.
All of this evidence of what inbreeding has done to our purebreds is proving that
mixed breeds or “mutts” are healthier than purebreds (BBC, 2008). If other states make
this ordinance, purebred breeders will have a monopoly on pets, and ultimately we will
lose our pets to inbreeding. The day this happens, it will be a very sad day.
In contrast, the opposing side of this argument says that it is cheaper to spay or
neuter at a younger age than when they are older (Bushby & Griffin 2011). Even though
this is true - it is cheaper for a pet to be spayed or neutered at a younger age- it is not
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5. necessarily healthy for all pets. When deciding to spay or neuter a pet, the owner and
veterinarian must consider the breed of the pet, and the pet’s health history.
Another argument is that this is the only way to battle pet overpopulation.
Veterinarian Michael A. McLaughlin says this about the battle of pet overpopulation,
“Frequently, our valiant attempts to control the pet overpopulation problem have struck
me as a Sisyphean task.” He talks about the Greek myth where Sisyphus angered
Hades and Hades punished him by forcing him every day to roll a huge rock up a steep
hill, but before he could reach the top of the hill, the rock would always roll back down
again, forcing him to start all over again (McLaughlin, 2009). Even though spaying and
neutering is the main way to fight pet overpopulation, the decision to spay or neuter a
pet should be a choice that the owner and veterinarian decide, not the government.
Even though the opposing side can argue on the other issues, they cannot
dispute the problems caused by inbreeding, or the fact that this ordinance will promote
purebred breeding. As research has shown, spaying and neutering can cause some
pets to become susceptible to some diseases and is not always healthy for the pet. This
new ordinance is not appropriate for these reasons, and is why the pet owner and
veterinarian, not the ordinance, should decide spaying and neutering.
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6. References
BBC. (2008, August 18). Pedigree Dogs Exposed. Retrieved November 10, 2011, from
Top Documentary Films: http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/pedigree-dogs-exposed/
Bushby, P., & Griffin, B. (2011, Feb 1). An overview of pediatric spay and neuter
benefits and techniques - veterinary medicine. Retrieved from
http://veterinarymedicine.dvm360.com/vetmed/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=709366&sk=&
date=&&pageID=1
Coil, Kate. (2011, Nov 09). First reading of spay-neuter ordinance ok’d . Bluefield Daily
Telegraph. Retrieved from http://bdtonline.com/local/x57161016/First-reading-of-spay-
neuter-ordinance-OK-d
Coile, D. (2010). The Spaying Gamble. Dog World, 95(7), 20-21.
Dogs that changed the world selective breeding problems. (2007). Retrieved from
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/dogs-that-changed-the-world/selective-
breeding-problems/1281/
Frick, Dr. Paula (2011, October 13). Interview by S.E. Cash [Personal Interview]. A Day
in the Life of a Veterinarian.
Gulli, C. (2011). Dogs gone. Maclean's, 124(33/34), 25.
Kirsti, M. (n.d). Clinics step in to slow the boom in cat population. USA Today.
Macpherson, A. N. L., Meslin, F., & Wandeler, A. I. (2000). Dogs, zoonoses, and public
health. Cambridge, MA, USA : CABI.
McLaughlin, M. A. (2009). Pet overpopulation: An uphill battle. DVM: The
Newsmagazine Of Veterinary Medicine, 40(11), 22.
Preece, O., & Chamberlain, L. (1995). Animal welfare and human values. Waterloo, ON,
CAN : Wilfrid Laurier Univ Pr.
Smith, Ethan, & Dauncey, Guy (2007). Building an ark : 101 solutions to animal
suffering. Gabriola Island, BC, CAN : New Society Publishers
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