At least in some Scandinavian countries it is illegal to neuter or spay a healthy canine companion (Psychology Today).
There are a lot of differences between the U.S. and Scandinavia (the cash value of children is a lot lower over there, for starters!), but could this be an area where they might have something to teach us? Here’s one reference looking at the overall effects of sterilization.
What do readers think? Can it be the case that doing something so unnatural is actually beneficial to an animal’s health? And if it is so great for dogs, why don’t we routinely do it to ourselves? We could bank our genetic material at a young age and then have our reproductive organs removed. If we wanted to have children we could then simply hire surrogates in countries that hadn’t realized the important health benefits of sterilization.
Very innovative and provocative thinking. However, according to a Latin text written about 1100, Sincopus tried castration and it worked out badly. See
http://www.purplemotes.net/2015/05/03/sincopus-castrating-men/
“…beneficial to an animal’s health?”
A neutered dog, human, anything; may live longer and die of different causes, but the life it lived was drastically different. I’m willing to say that difference is a reduction, not a benefit.
Think about yourself. Testosterone is a wonder drug. You (and I) are old enough to have experienced the effects of it’s reduction. Think of your life if it was stopped completely at your sexual maturity…say 16? I’m not even talking about sexual impact, just life. The aches, the pains, the loss of muscle. Unfortunately, it is also slowly killing us. Still, many, many men (and woman) have decided that life with low sex hormones sucks and take replacements. They do this knowing the risks.
The benefit of neutering is only for the owners. Any other “reason” is also to sooth the guilt of the owners as well.
I though that spay/neuter is first and foremost pushed forward by people who make money from it (here I assume that dog owners are just a bunch of gullible middle class people).
Obviously dogs shelters everywhere show that not doing anything to stop unwanted puppy production is pretty stupid, but chances are that said shelters have the crop of canines coming out of (1) semi-ferals that reproduced and (2) the dogs of “not middle class” folks who do not do forethought.
There are serious studies on risk/benefits of removing the gonads of dogs, and those generally come up with ‘it depends what you care and are worried about, and also the age at which the procedure was done’.
All female infant genital mutilation has been outlawed in all Scandinavian countries. A ban on all male infant genital mutilation is probably coming within the next few years in most of the countries.
As with cutting the tails or testes off of dogs the industry benefitting from the practice can cite more or less dodgy research showing some benefits. But over all I wouldn’t believe them.
Staying clear of the scalpels unless you’re actually ill, is the smartest move.
Personally I’ve spared myself, the dogs and the kids.
TV Guy says that testosterone is a wonder drug… And he’s sort of right.
Here’s a story of what happens to a 50 year old guy trying out “supplements”
http://www.outsideonline.com/1924306/drug-test?page=all
Personally, I’ve yet to hit the supplements. The risk/reward is not yet worth it.