User:Steele/Spay and Neuter

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(This is a draft reworking of the Spay/Neuter article, to make it more inclusive of issues and views, rather than just the mechanics and surgery)

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For other uses of Spay, see Spay (disambiguation).

Spaying and neutering are the respective surgical processes of female and male animal sterilization, to keep them from producing offspring. Neutering is sometimes used to refer to the surgery in either males or females. The process in males is also referred to as castration, or gelding.

Unlike in humans, sterilization in animals usually involves the outright removal of sexual organs. While most agree on the advantages of sterilization as a method of birth control, the necessity and humanity of spaying and neutering, as opposed to alternative methods of birth control, and the political agendas within the debate, are a subject of some controversy.


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[edit] Household pets

Most humane societies, animal shelters, and rescue groups (not to mention numerous commercial entities) urge pet owners to have their pets "spayed or neutered" to prevent the births of unwanted litters, contributing to the overpopulation of animals.

Additionally, spaying and neutering have health benefits. Uterine, ovarian, and testicular cancer are prevented (although the incidence of these cancers is not necessarily high to begin with), and hormone-driven diseases such as benign prostatic hypertrophy become a non-issue as well. Female cats and dogs that are not spayed are seven times more likely to develop mammary tumors if they are not spayed before their first heat cycle. [1] A dangerous common uterine infection known as pyometra is also prevented.

Immediate complications of spaying and neutering include anesthetic and surgical complications. In the long run, dogs of both genders have an increased risk of obesity. Spayed female dogs sometimes develop urinary incontinence, and neutered males display a somewhat increased incidence of prostate cancer over intact males.[2] Spayed and neutered dogs have also been known to develop hormone-responsive alopecia (hair loss).[3] Neutered male cats are more prone to urethral obstruction due to narrowing of the urethra.

The procedures may also help to address behavioral issues that might otherwise result in animals being given up to shelters, abandoned, or euthanised. Obviously, the animals lose their libido, and females no longer experience heat cycles, which may be a major nuisance factor, especially in female cats. This is due to the hormonal changes involved with both genders. Minor personality changes may occur in the animal. Neutering is often recommended in cases of undesirable behavior in dogs, although studies suggest that while roaming, urine marking, and mounting are reduced in neutered males, it has little affect on aggression and other important behavioral issues. Intact male cats are more prone to urine spraying, although many common behavioral causes of urine marking remain in neutered cats.

[edit] Methods

[edit] Traditional spay/neuter

Spaying of a female cat.
Spaying of a female cat.

Traditionally, spay and neuter has been achieved by surgical techniques involving gross removal of the entire organs involved in the progenetary process. In females, this is known as spaying, and involves complete surgical removal of the ovaries and uterus (womb). In males it is known as neutering (or castration), and involves removal of the entire male testes (testicles).

[edit] Female (spay)

In female animals, spaying involves abdominal surgery to remove the ovaries and uterus. It is commonly practiced on household pets such as cats and dogs as a method of birth control, but is rarely performed on livestock.

See also oophorectomy and hysterectomy.

[edit] Males (neuter/castration)

In male animals, neutering involves the removal of the testes, and is commonly practiced on both household pets (for birth control) and on livestock (for birth control, as well as to improve commercial value).

For more information, see castration.

[edit] Modern nonsurgical alternatives

[edit] Injectable

  • Male dogs - "Neutersol" (Zinc gluconate neutralized by arginine). Cytotoxic; produces infertility by chemical disruption of the testicle.[4]
  • Female mammals - "SpayVac" (purified porcine zona pellucida antigens encapsulated in liposomes - cholesterol and lecithin - with an adjuvant.) Produces infertility by inducing an immune response to the egg. [5]

[edit] Other

  • Noninvasive vasectomy using ultrasound.[6]


[edit] Other issues surrounding the debate

[edit] The spay and neuter debate

The spay and neuter debate is an emotive and complex one. This section attempts to cover some of the background and main directions it has travelled. It is perhaps best considered under two broad aspects - the debate over animal sterilization, and the more specific debate that, if sterilization is appropriate, is spay and neuter (S&N) the right way to achieve it.

The main reason for advocation of general animal sterilization is that a large number of owners of animals are irresponsible, or that animals despite good care may breed without human approval. There are an immense number of unwanted and uncared for animals, and millions are destroyed. So advocates strongly feel that animals (other than those actually intended to be responsibly bred) should be neutered, since owners often cannot or will not act responsibly if not, often with tragic animal consequences.

It is also a favored treatment to cure animal behavioral patterns that are sexually mediated, such as territorial marking, aggression, or sexual acts and solicitation, which embarrass and are unwanted by some owners. Spay and neuter succeeds in this because it removes the gross organs producing the relevant hormones.

A significant number of animal owners and those interested in animal welfare, whilst agreeing that there is much irresponsible breeding, do not agree that spay and neuter is the most appropriate approach to that problem. Reasons include that

A final reason is that certain clinical conditions are made more or less likely by the presence of hormones in the body. Both sides observe that some conditions are more common, some less so, if these organs are removed. Animal owners against spay and neuter argue that these hormones and organs have multiple and complex effects which are still not fully understood, and that people do not as a rule castrate other people to prevent illness. Instead we treat illnesses as and when they arise.

Other questions raised in the course of the debate include fro example:

  • Are desexed animals robbed of part of life? or given more life?
  • Does desexing make an animal safer?
  • Does desexing encourage a view that animals are commodities (modify as wished) and hence encourage abuse by removing aspects of animal behavior that people would otherwise have to acknowledge, and allowing idealization?
  • Animal sexuality -- should flawed *owner* irresponsibility be recognized by removal of major organs in *animals*?

[edit] Political issues

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[edit] Terminology for neutered animals

[edit] Male animals

Neutered males of given animal species sometimes have specific names:

[edit] Female animals

A specialized vocabulary in animal husbandry and -fancy has arisen for spayed females of given animal species:

[edit] Miscellaneous

  • TV celebrity Bob Barker helped to popularize the spay-or-neuter drive by closing his shows with a request for people to help control the pet population by spaying or neutering their pets.
  • Orthodox Judaism forbids the castration of either humans or animals.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Morrison, Wallace B. (1998). Cancer in Dogs and Cats (1st ed.). Williams and Wilkins. ISBN 0-683-06105-4. 
  2. ^ Current Information on Prostate Disease, Testicular Neoplasia, and Undesirable Behavior in Male Dogs. Retrieved on May 14, 2005.
  3. ^ Ettinger, Stephen J.;Feldman, Edward C. (1995). Textbook of Veterinary Internal Medicine(4th ed.). W.B. Saunders Company. ISBN 0-7216-6795-3. 
  4. ^ Current Information on Prostate Disease, Testicular Neoplasia, and Undesirable Behavior in Male Dogs. Retrieved on May 14, 2005.
  5. ^ SpayVac. Retrieved on Early, 2003.
  6. ^ N.M. Fried, Y.D. Sinelnikov, B.B. Pant, W.W. Roberts, S.B. Solomon, (December 2001). "Noninvasive vasectomy using a focused ultrasound clip: thermalmeasurements and simulations". Biomedical Engineering, IEEE Transactions on 48 (12): 1453-1459. 

[edit] External links

[[Category:Cat health]] [[Category:Dog health]] [[Category:Animal anatomy]] [[Category:Veterinary medicine]] [[Category:Surgical removal procedures]] [[Category:Animal welfare]]

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