Thinking about spaying or neutering your dog? 
Better Think Twice!

How and Why it all Began

What started as a means to control population (surprise: it never worked)  spiraled into common practice that still lingers today.

The phrase “spay-neuter” was not heard of before the 1970s and the surgery itself was rarely performed in The United States before the 1930s. And it today, it remains common practice in ONLY the United States. Many European countries keep the majority of their dogs intact, and in some countries like Sweeden, spay and neuter without a health related reason, is ILLEGAL.  We have organizations like the ASPCA to thank, although they were originally against widespread de-sexing, by the mid-70s they had become a leading proponent of the practice. In 1973, ASPCA started requiring spay-neuter before adoption. 

Population control is usually the excuse, and of course you've probably heard, "spay and neutered dogs live a longer, healthier life,” and that your dog will be “better behaved” if they are de-sexed.

Unfortunately, recent research proves ALL of these claims to be false! 

Spay and Neuter practice hasn't even managed to achieve the original goal of population control. 

"At first glance, insofar as spay-neuter practices have been aimed at overpopulation, they appear to have been an indisputable success. The number of animals arriving at shelters has reduced appreciably since the 1970s; the number of euthanasias has plummeted, to two to four million euthanized cats and dogs annually now from estimates of more than 20 million back then. This triumph, though, is asterisked. Specific numbers are very hard to come by, given the vagaries of reporting. A 2018 report by Andrew Rowan, then chief scientific officer of the Humane Society, and Tamara Kartal, of Humane Society International, suggests that the 1970s figure was much less, closer to 13.5 million — and cites many other societal changes as significant in lowering euthanization rates. Critically, there are now much higher rates of adoptions, better “containment” (fewer pet dogs just let loose to run around), and better identification methods, which allow for reunion of lost dogs with their owners.

Stephen Zawistowski, a former science adviser for the A.S.P.C.A., who has looked at the intake rates in the A.S.P.C.A. in New York City since it was founded in the 19th century, told me that “the largest decrease in dogs and cats coming into the city happened in the ’40s, ’50s and ’60s” — before spay-neuter became common and well before it became law. In some areas, studies have found that the opening of a subsidized spay-neuter clinic had no effect on local rates of euthanasia." (11)