I'm not sure. I'm guessing that just getting them hysterectomies (which would still have some side effects) or tubal ligations aren''t practical, right? I'll try asking a friend about this if I can find their e-mail address.

Hello,

I stumbled across your web site because I was (frantically) searching the net for hormonal alternatives to spaying or any other alternatives to spaying.

I agree that spaying and neutering are barbaric methods and I think the "health-motivated" justifications are just pretexs to rid ourselves of our guilty consciences.

I was constantly told not to compare animals with humans in what concerns reproduction, but once you see how powerful and amazing their reproductive/motherly instincts are it is clear that by these operations we are taking away an important component of their nature.

However, in my case, the situation is a little more difficult. As I am against spaying, I let my first female dog have a litter of pups. Even though she was quite young and of a small breed (mixed breed, rescued from the streets - for those of you arguing that only pure breeds should be allowed to have "pure" puppies with other "pure" males see the human chapter on Nazism, Hitler's ideas of a "pure" race, it is basically the exact same thing-), nevertheless they way my bitch cared for each and every one of them left me in awe. In fact, I was so taken up by the whole thing that from a litter of 5 pups, I decided to keep 4 as my own regardless of the efforts to raise them. When you have purebred puppies, they all look the same. But my puppies were so different in appearance and personality from each other that, from the moment they were born, I loved them all equally and differently and I could resolve myself to give away even one of the four.

The real problems arose when, having decided to use alternative methods to spaying on my two 6-months old girls, I discovered that there are absolutely no methods that I can use on prepubertal or pubertal (at first heat) bitches because of the high risk of fatal disease (like pyometra). Their mother is currently on a third-generation progesterone (proligestone) and does not have any side-effects (at least yet). But these drugs can only be used in adults. As I cannot separate them properly or even let them go into heat and I cannot risk their health by giving them these hormones anyway, I have no other options but to spay them. I dread the operation (although everyone assured me that it was a piece of cake and that it was in their best interest). In my case, it is indeed in their best interest as it is the less of two evils. By giving them hormones the risk of pyometra would have been over 50%. However, I do not fool myself that it is "better" for the pets. No, the operations I am going to put them through will make MY life easier and are done for MY sake. I will have to deal with this for the rest of their lives. However, I will not neuter the boys no matter what people tell me. There are absolutely no health reasons for them (see various studies) to be neutered.

So, the bottom line would be that neither being pro-spaying nor against it helps. What is needed is to find an acceptable medical alternative that is relatively safe and can be used from the first heats with few side-effects. Until then, there are almost (or even no) alternatives to spaying in a multi-dog household with both males and females. Do you offer any other ideas on how spaying can be avoided in a situation like this?

Im against neutering and have been as long as i remember. This while my partens, friends and dog owners ive met doenst at all seem to understand that assured unethical part in actually castrationg a dog. Firstly, castration is adopted by many ignorant dog owners as a magical solution to all kinds of problems, in particular when it comes to males.

So its generally believed that castration is a miracle solution. When it comes to problems with aggressive dogs, castration only cures about 50% of the cases. And for those who state that they castrate their male dogs to save them from cancer surprise me given that (to the best of my knowledge) castration actually increases the risk of prostate cancer.

The main problem here are the owners. Its A LOT easier to adobt animal fixing / neutering as a unquestionable solution rather than going into the subject, do research or and consider other solutions. It%u2019s a pretty touchy subject since neutering is related to the dogs sexuality. And most owners doesn%u2019t like to think of their %u201Cpets%u201D in ways related to just that. Sex and the organs related to that is still very offensive to most people. That%u2019s the main problem here.

Im glad that there is a %u201Cresistance%u201D against this clearly unscrupulous cruelty and this huge misinterpretation regarding neutering.

I am so glad there is a resistance to this "If you don't neuter you don't care" hype going around. Why not a vasectomy or tubal ligation? They get the job done without hurting the pet's hormone levels or natural behavior. The only reason to "justify" all out spaying and neutering is to alter the behavior of the pet, and quite frankly from a psychologist's perspective that raises many issues. You are essentially locking your cat or dog in a perpetual state of puppyhood or kittenhood, stunting growth in certain areas. And I hate it when people use the excuse of "millions of cats and dogs are killed in shelters", feral dogs are dangerous, but when it comes to feral cats there are some places where they are welcomed. I live near some feral cat colonies, and apparently nobody has any trouble with them, in fact there is one where nobody alerts animal control or the humane society because the cats are better off there living wildly ther than in a shelter. Not all cats are "poor, helpless, starving and disease ridden" I know some are though, but let's think about that for a minute, why don't the same people say "Oh poor mangey, tick loaded foxes! Look at them starving and killing birds in wild! We must help them by capturing them and putting them in shelters until they are wanted and we must spay and neuter them so that they won't procreate to make more poor helpless foxes!". Feral cats are wild, and although I agree there are some places were they don't belong and can spread disease some places are fine with it like here in the American Southwest where coyotes can deal with them. And when it comes to predating on native species, I think people are only favoring certain animals because some are "cute" and there is lots of bias. Ecosystems change, animals migrate. I feel sorry about the birds, but Evolution has decided on the favor of the cats. And we're talking about cats that have already sexually matured, so wouldn't a full out spay and neuter screw them up a lot behaviorally? Where they don't belong at least give them the decency of letting them keep their sexual hormones if not their ability to reproduce, hey according to most vets wouldn't they die faster? Isn't that a good thing then for bird lovers? I don't agree with starving abandoned kittens I just hate the "all cats and dogs even feral need a home otherwise they'll suffer" they're WILD now they don't need a stinking home and getting them to adjust is difficult anyway.
I also want to add that I have visited a country where all cats are essentially barn cats so they are allowed to roam and mate and fight and eat pests. Some are socialized and some are not, I met the socialized ones and they are really sweet, sweeter than the neutered cats over here in the US that I have met. I also met someone with some intact dogs, both were very sweet, and two of them were very old, past 15 and still energetic and healthy. And one of them is the sweetest dog I ever met, a huge German Shepard that sometimes does act aggressive with strangers like any other neutered dog but overall he is very sweet and lets me play with his ears and paws and does not roam very far when he does(he goes to the neighbor's door!).

I'm happy to have found this site. While I am not of the mindset to compare humans and animals, I do think that dogs are meant to have this part of their endocrine systems. These hormones affect them in every way. I don't think surgery should be a replacement for responsibility.

I already mentioned alternatives. Please read over the whole site before commenting.

So you all believe in animal freedom.... don't think that is going to happen on a puppy farm or to the animals that are cruely treated. Yes some people are just born malicious and will treat animals badly but the less cbance these people have the better. How could a country cope with all animals allowed to procreate. They can hardly manage with people doing this let alone with animals being allowed to. For goodness sake open your eyes. Do you honestly think animals give a shit whether they can have babies or not....

Some people probably do think that animals want it. I don't know of any other sources, Irina. (I'm sorry about the delayed responce.)

I wish there were movements like this one in the United States. I have brought this topic to much debate and after hearing both sides I am against neutering. It's hypocritical of so-called Animal Rights activists to support neutering. Do they really think that is what the animals want?