Should You Spay or Neuter Your Animal?

It's a good question, and one that has a really good answer.

If you are a responsible dog owner, you should consider spaying or neutering your animal because it is better for their health, and better for the future of animals in general.

Every day thousands of dogs, cats, and other animals are euthanized by shelters across the world because they don't have the funds to feed and take care of the animals they have in their facilities. They get hundreds of calls from around their area to go pick up an animal that has gotten loose or was born in the wild, and there's no possible way to take them all in. The shelters are always short on money, volunteers, and official people, and the animals in shelters suffer for it.

Animals in shelters commonly get Kennel Cough, and they usually develop behavioral problems, especially if they've been there a while. Being locked in a cage all of the time with few people to walk them or interact with them can turn them violent or neurotic, and sometimes they never recover.

Many of the animals in shelters are puppies that were strays born in the wild. Some were dropped off in boxes along with the rest of their litter because a dog got pregnant and the owners don't want the puppies. I can't count how many times I've been in a shelter where there are puppies still being nursed by the volunteers and staff of the shelter because they were left in a box or bag on the shelter's doorstep as harmless, vulnerable puppies.

Whenever you have a dog in heat, or a mature, intact male dog, you run the risk of them getting pregnant or getting someone pregnant, and you have to deal with the consequences. You have to decide to either sell them, give them away, or keep them. If you sell them, and they don't all get sold, do you give them away to people, or take them to the pound? If they go to the pound, will they get put to sleep? The sad truth is, probably. And to be honest, they may be better off getting euthanized than having a life spent in a cage or with a bad owner.

Dog who are not spayed or neutered have double the risk of getting cancer, especially ovarian or testicular cancer, which are very common among mammals. They're often more violent (in the case of male dogs), and have more territory marking and defending behaviors than dogs that were spayed/neutered as a puppy.

Mature male dogs will develop mounting behaviors with female or male dogs near them, and some of them go as far to attempt to mount humans. This behavior can be dangerous because if they're very determined to mate, they may get violent with other people or dogs near their target, or even violent with their target.

Intact females and males develop more territory-marking tendencies, and are more likely to mark up the house they live in. This marking is very smelly, and lasts a very long time. Once they learn to mark their living area, they won't unlearn it. This habit is nearly impossible to break. They may also generalize to marking their owners and guests the owners have in their houses.

Not neutering or spaying your animal, be they dog, cat, ferret, or other, can damage their health and well-being, as well as other animals or people that encounter them. It is something that every responsible pet owner should consider doing.

Morgan Clemens currently owns and runs "The Mutt Squad, LLC", a business that provides pet sitting, dog walking, and dog socialization services to Phoenix, AZ, and it's surrounding cities. Her passion is and always has been the proper treatment of all animals, both wild and domestic. According to her, this proper treatment includes both mental and physical health, and is a necessary part of owning or interacting with any animal.