Are you "pro" spay/neuter or not?

Another thread got me thinking about this. For non-breeding dogs are you pro spay/neuter? Working for a vet ive been brainwashed into thinking that most people want their dogs spayed/neutered. I was suprised to find out on here how many actually dont. Sooo.... opcorn: No fights, just curious.

Me personally, im a huge pro spay/neuter advocate!! What time to do so depends on many things for me.

Personally if they aren't being showed or bred then I don't see why you would speuter your pet. It seems like more trouble then it's worth.

I especially support it for your everyday ignorant owner. I know that many people here have unaltered pets and are just fine but I also know that these people are careful, not everyone is.

Pro, if only for the fact that ever since we opened a low-cost spay/neuter clinic here, the euthanasia rate of the local shelter has been cut by over 40%

i am neither . i am pro doing what is right for you.

i would never spay/neuter a young dog , really anytime before 2 i will not do.
now my dog is not spayed , but she is never going to be breed , she is in no danger of being breed EVER. i have a house full of people all the time and no other dogs and she is only outside leashed.


but i do find this to be a personal issue , i am educated onhow to keep an intact dog . for the general public joe schmo have no clue dog owner i advocate fixing at maturity.

I neuter/spay all of my pets because I have no desire to deal with intact animals...marking, heats, keeping them separated...not for me. It is so much easier to just spay/neuter and not worry about all of that

That exactly.

I am an advocate of spaying and neutering for the vast majority of pet dogs. There are way too many careless people out there and the over-population of miserable dogs languishing in shelters is already through the roof. Humans need to start respecting this species.

However, I am not entirely black and white on the subject. If people are responsible about keeping their dogs from being accidently bred and they have their reasons, such as I do for keeping their males intact, at least until full grown or they have weighed the health benefits carefully and have convictions regarding the health and welfare of their dog, that's a little different. And of course dogs worthy of and used for breeding is self explanatory.

Working at a shelter I am very pro spay/neuter for the average pet owner, and especially so with cats, because we still get 18000 animals/yr due in large part to people who don't handle intact animals responsibly. I also fully support early age s/n for this population because so many are uninformed about reproductive development and signs to watch for that indicate heat specifically.

For myself, I prefer s/n after maturity - I managed to get my two shelter girls spayed at 10mo (Maggie because that's how old she was when she came to the shelter originally and Ziva because I waited to officially adopt her until she was 10 months to avoid early s/n), but my shelter boy was neutered too early for my liking (14 weeks due to some politics imo). All three are or have been performance dogs. Future dogs I would like to get from a rescue that would allow me to delay s/n until at least 8mo or from a responsible breeder who would allow me to s/n after 1-2yo. I would spay a female earlier just because I don't want to deal with more than one heat cycle and preferably none.

For others who understand the risks and are responsible about it I don't see any reason to s/n unless desired (for health benefits or convenience).

I'm much for it, but sadly myself have an unfixed dog. I can't get my mom to bring him in! It's been a challenge for years now, I don't see why she won't considering he isn't used for showing or breeding and it'd make him better around females, but noooo. I know once I can drive I'm just taking him there myself though.

Completely agree!


My way of thinking is....I personally don't like intact dogs. I don't like having to worry about them or constantly manage them male or female. I like knowing that my males have no chance of getting loose and getting a random female pregnant. I also like not having to rotate crates if Maggie was in heat and the boys were intact. Thats just too much personal stress for me.

Also every intact male I have owned has had a marking problem. Not so much humping. Morrison came with a humping problem since he was intact. But after a few days working with him it became far and few between. The marking is something that annoyed me to no end.

Now that Morrison is neutered I can actually take him with me to friends/families homes. Where before he would automatically start marking inside any unfamiliar place. Especially if there were other dogs. Thats has now completely stopped and I can let him off lead at friends/families homes. Instead of having to keep him contained while the other dogs played. Which wasent fair.

He and Sawyer still mark over each others scent in the back yard. But its no longer a "I gotta pee on every inch of the property, because it is mine! MINE I TELL YOU!!!" lol.

Now when it comes to other people. Its totally up to them. I have no judgement for anyone who owns intact dogs. I just hope they are responsible
and vigilant. Its their personal choice and as long as I don't have to live with them, im happy.

I do have issues with some intact dog owners who actually look down on people who don't. Its as if they think its lazy to spay/neuter a dog. Or that it takes some important personality trait away from the dog. I honestly lately hear alot more anti spay/neuter talk from dog people than pro. Which is whatever. Im gonna do what im gonna do. And vice versa.

I do beleive no dog should be spayed/neutered before physical maturity.

I think everyone has to decide for themselves what is right. I don't condone early speutering though.

I had Lola spayed for a few reasons. No heat cycles making her bitchy, no picking up red spots from the floor and her chances of getting mammary cancer are almost non existent. If your not showing your dog and don't plan to breed responsibly then I think it should be done but that is my opinion and people will have other opinions.

Pro. I do think there may be exceptions such as dogs who would do poorly under anesthesia but again, for the vast majority of the average dog owning public, it will keep the oops litters down.

I personally wouldn't deal with intact animals either, but I wish I knew better at the time and had waited until they were 2... not that I had the choice with Tips anyway.

Otherwise I'm pro, just because there are just too many oops litters, and you really can't trust the average person to do the right thing in most circumstances.

I'm neither.

I am pro responsible ownership, and if that means an individual needs to speuter to prevent accidental breeding or to make management easier, so be it.

There are long term health and behavioral issues associated with early spay/neuter, so I tend to not be a fan of speutering puppies, but it's still better than having all sorts of oops litter due to people unable to manage intact animals.

S/N doesn't make someone responsible. It simply makes their dogs unable to reproduce.

For my own dogs, I'm not a fan of putting them through surgery, removing internal organs and altering bodily functions.

I am pro-spay/neuter. The average pet owner out there just isn't capable of caring for an intact dog of either sex responsibly and properly, therefore, I feel it's in the best interest of most dogs out there to be spayed and neutered.

That said, there are also people out there who are more than capable of having intact animals. They seem to be few and far between when I'm out and about in public, but they are out there, and in those cases, I don't really care.

I don't understand why anyone would not want to spay their girls though. It's messy and inhibits regular daily life for at least a month a couple times a year generally... and in my experience, they always seem to come into season at the most inconvenient times. I'd much rather spay and be rid of all of that. Pyometra scares me like crazy too.

And after living with Ripley, whose hormones get in the way of his focus pretty easily these days, I can't wait to neuter him one day as well. He's a good dog, but his constant (almost obsessive) want/need for sniffing and marking and girl finding (outside only, but still) is really annoying. I'm fully capable of keeping him intact forever, but I have no desire to. Of course I don't let him get over the top about things, and a lot of it is just his age, but it still gets in the way of training when I'm constantly having to get his focus back to me.

THere are so many really stupid owners in this complex, about as many as there are responsible ones. So I believe only stupid ones, repeat offenders, should have to have a license to have litters or pets at all....Since that is never going to happen I don't know what the answer should be. I have had intact males all my adult life. I did have an oops litter. THey were 100 percent house broken, could be taken anywhere and except for that mistake, which I take total blame for, they were no harm to society. One was a therapy dog.

Females are so much harder. THere are silent heats. I never quite believed it until it happened to me. Mary was too young, there was not one spot, not one bit of difference in behavior, nothing to give me a heads up. So if you do not have a license to breed than yes I do believe females should be spay. My dogs have lived long healthy lives of joy and never suffered anything from it. I was a total wreck the day Mary went in because I knew there is always that one chance the gas could hurt her or something go wrong. I had a bad feeling and I almost backed out until I remembered what happened and never wanted her to go through that again.

I can only base my answers on my own experiences and one fact. The number of cats and dogs, kittens and puppies that are put down is horrid. I want to say 54 million but that might be outdated, and I am no good at storing numbers in my head so it may be way over too. My pups all had arranged homes, house broken, had their vaccines, and could sit on cue when the left. STILL I know that those homes might have been a rescue. I have tried in many ways to make up for that ever since.

I agreed to neuter Victor and because I had promised I did. He suffered an allergic attack and swelled up as if he had been stung by a hundred bees. It was awful.

For the average joe owner I'd most definitely act pro spay and neuter, most people are in no way responsible enough to own an intact pet. For real dog people and responsible owners I'd say wait until maturity. As a vet (if that's what I end up doing) I'll say spay and neuter for my clients unless they say they plan on keeping an intact pet and seem adamant that they do not want the dog to reproduce and will do what they need to keep them from doing so.

:hail: Soon as i see them coming down they get chopped off. :lol-sign:

Definitely Pro. I have no intention of ever living with an intact dog. The heats, the marking, the having to be careful so you don't have an "oops", it's not for me.