Benefits of Neutering Your Canine or Feline
Castrating your animal will decrease the amount of testosterone produced by removing the testicles. This is important because testosterone correlates with aggressive, dominating, territorial and sexual behavior. Eliminating the site where the largest testosterone production occurs will directly decrease an animal’s aggressive and dominating behavior towards other animals. In regards to male canines this is crucial because it can significantly diminish marking and mounting. However, in order for an animal to fine tune these desired behaviors requires proper training and patience. Further, it will also decrease your animal’s desire to mount other animals, in addition to females in heat. Reducing an animal’s sexual drive will reduce the urge to search for a mate, essentially decreasing your pet’s need to wander. Neutering your dog will not completely cure these behavioral issues, but it will dramatically reduce these behaviors.
Spaying your animal will reduce the chance of an urinary infection, mammary cancer, uterine cancer, and ovarian cancer. If a canine is spayed before the first heat cycle, there is only a 0.05 percent chance of getting mammary cancer; breast cancer is the second most common cancer in female canines. Moreover, if you spay a dog after the second heat cycle the chances of getting breast cancer jumps to 25 percent. Spaying your animal at approximately six-months-old will almost completely eliminate the risk of mammary cancer. Likewise, neutering your animal will reduce the chances of testicular cancer, prostate cancer, and hernias. Intact male and females commonly have problems with cancers of these sorts as they increase in age. Sterilizing your pet will allow them to live longer, healthier lives.
Lastly, when deciding whether or not to sterilize your animal consider the overpopulation of domestic animal. Currently in the United States, eight hundred canines and felines are euthanized every hour because there are not enough homes, shelters, or resources. Unfortunately, that is equivalent to 19,000 animals getting euthanized each day. Astonishingly, the U.S. has to perform over 7 million euthanasia each year. A solution to lower the amount of animals without a home is preventing unwanted pregnancies. For example, one female dog can go into heat at least once a year, and produce a litter of five puppies on average. If a dog lives to be ten years old, that dog could potentially give birth to fifty puppies that will need homes. Reducing the number of animals being born reduces the number of animals that need homes. There are health, behavioral, and societal benefits to spaying and neutering animals.
