Mine is that you don’t lose your dog the way I lost Murphy: to a cancer linked to early spay/neuter. Make my agenda yours: let’s save our dogs’ lives.

Join me: let’s take down the animal welfare community as it currently exists.

End it. Stop it. Put it out of business.

All of them. The veterinary community. The animal welfare organizations, from our local shelters and rescues to national organizations like the Humane Society and Best Friends. Breeders. The irresponsible owners who produce the mixed-breed dogs who have helped our shelter/rescue system become the new puppy millers.

Rebuild it so all of them become our partners in creating healthy multi-species families.

Got your attention?

Did you know that 50% of dogs over 10 will die from cancer?

Murphy was a week shy of 13 years, 8 months.

She died from a cancer linked to early spay/neuter, like other cancers, as well as thyroid disease, obesity, and arthritis.

Do you know what the research shows?

• Take female dogs through at least two heat cycles.
• There is almost no reason to ever neuter a male dog.

Why? Because we don’t know what interrupting the hormonal development of maturing animals does, but we can now clearly see what happens when we do.

The animal welfare community knows this! They are ignoring it! The statistics are out there. Their silence is killing our dogs!

Many of these people know better. Their voices are either silenced or drowned out by ignorance and politics. Bad thinking that says we must spay/neuter to prevent overpopulation because people won’t be responsible later or because it controls aggression. Bad thinking that insists somebody else should tell you how to live with your animal families. Dangerous thinking, because it is clearly wrong.

Yes, cancers can come from not spaying or neutering, and from other things, like environmental toxins, genetics, over-vaccination, and bad luck. It’s a delicate balance, and the answer shouldn’t rest in the hands of our paternalistic, simplistic, brainwashed animal welfare community. The answer rests in our hands.

Make them accountable. Make yourselves accountable. Here’s how you start:

• Refuse. Refuse to buy or take any animal from anyone, shelter or breeder, who insists on spay/neuter before adoption. Refuse to adopt any animal who has been spayed or neutered early. Whether or when your next animal is spayed or neutered, it should be a decision you make with a trusted vet. If we were going to solve the problem of pet overpopulation by early spay/neuter it would have happened already. Instead, we have an epidemic of life-threatening and life-ending diseases, like cancer. The practice will stop if you don’t buy into it.
• Hire. Find a veterinarian who will discuss early spay/neuter with you and help you come to a wise decision. Stick with that vet and refer business to them.
• Educate. Learn what the issues are, including cancer. Tell everyone you know who has an animal, wants one, or trades in animals (that includes breeders, veterinary facilities, shelter and rescue organizations, and the irresponsible people who breed the dogs who end up at shelters). The arguments about aggression and overpopulation are ignorant. People mean well but they simply don’t know any better. Learn about the issues. Then teach them.
• Discuss. Debate the issues calmly, rationally, respectfully. It’s the only way we’ll create new guidelines that will help our dogs. And us.
• Research. Get them funding and conducting the research that will fight these diseases while clearly identifying what causes them, and why. Do your own research: read up on it starting with this article.
• Love. Good policy comes from wide open loving hearts. Keep clear and balanced. Refuse to fall into the traps of fear spread by current animal welfare policies.

When cancer is linked to something that we thought all along was responsible, like early spay/neuter, then we need to stop the practice, counsel and educate all involved, and conduct the research to find a solution. Then we need to apply the solutions, even if it’s on an individual basis, dog by dog.

Here’s one strange argument: vets have been doing early spay/neuter for some years on dogs as young as six weeks, and they insist on doing it by six months. They say the dogs are fine. But are they? The dogs may have done well in surgery, but who’s tracking what happens to them during their lives? Cancer is epidemic in our country. Reasonable, smart people are worried about the link between early spay/neuter and serious health and behavior issues in our dogs. Think about it!

Make the animal welfare community do the right thing: force them off the early spay/neuter bandwagon.

If you don’t do business with these people, they won’t be in business. If that’s what it takes, let’s do it.

Now.

Wise, responsible, caring choice is how we live the human-animal bond. Don’t let it die like Murphy did.

Life is too precious to waste. Love is too important to lose.

Take a good look: Murphy’s isn’t the face of the last dog who dies from splenic cancer. But maybe hers can be the face that helps us stop it.

Help me. Save our dogs.

© 2012 Robyn M Fritz