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So, my girlfriend and I just got a puppy, and the condition was that I (as the silly hippy you all know and love) would have to let her get it neutered if we were to get it. Now, I gave in because I so badly wanted the dog, but I still have my doubts. I doubt if I'll get my way, and I did already promise to let her do it, but here's the thing:
I'm becoming an anti-circumcision advocate of late, because so many people I know are having kids, and every time I hear about this I cringe. I'm cut, and I'm glad I am, but I'm really feeling like it's completely wrong to do that to a baby without his permission. Adult males can easily have the procedure done, and it's not supposed to be TOO painful, so aside from cultural and religious reasons, why the hell should you cut your baby's penis? It seems so barbaric!
Therefore, I feel the same way about neutering/spaying. The difference, of course, is that the animal can never decide that it wants the procedure, and probably wouldn't decide for it if it did have that ability. It just feels like you're taking away that animal's rights as a living being when you remove sexual organs. Would you like it if someone forced you to be castrated?
Probably not.
I know there are so many benefits to spaying / neutering, and it certainly makes sense to do it when you have an outside dog that could possibly go into heat and produce unwanted puppies or go around humping everything it sees. That makes sense to me, because you don't want those puppies to then be killed in the shelter. Then again, I don't believe in that either.
Jesus, I'm hard to please, eh?
I just have this feeling that animals have rights, too, and it seems like lopping off a dog's balls to keep its behavior the way you want it if it's an inside dog with almost no chance of ever mating (especially since mine's a datschund / lab mix, will barely be bigger than a datschund, and unless is as virile as his daddy will probably never be able to mount any dog he comes in contact with) is a bit mean and spiteful.
"You aren't calm enough, let's see how a little castration works!"
Am I alone in this? I can barely even find websites with any good information on alternatives to spaying / neutering. I've found a few that say it's wrong.... but don't provide any alternatives. I guess poor Sprocket is going to get neutered, but I feel so bad that I can't do anything to stop it. Having him around, though, is already worth the guilt I'm going to feel. He's so cute!
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