For the last few weeks, we have been working pretty hard to talk a bigtime rescuer into spaying-neutering the 100 over dogs in his shelter.
He has repeatedly refused because of his own beliefs, ie. if he spays-neuters the dogs, he himself might not be able to produce children in his next life. He also said maybe the dogs would not be able to reproduce in their next life (as dogs? humans? or another beings?).
It was extremely hard to convince him as he is very staunch in his beliefs, ie. he is worried about his own future and whatever repercussions spaying-neutering animals would have on him.
I have often been asked if there are bad repercussions resulting from participating in spay-neuter, in my public talks.
To this, I lay out the pros and cons, as such:
Cons:
1. We do not have the permission of the animal to get him/her spayed-neutered.
2. The capture and the operation would cause some pain and stress to the animal. In unfortunate cases, the animal might even die, but this is uncommon because our vets would examine the animal physically, check its history, before performing the operation. This is to minimise the risks of fatality.
Pros:
1. We stop the reproductive ability of the animal, and hence, prevent hundreds of unwanted pregnancies, births and untold suffering on the streets.
2. We lessen the chances of breast cancer and testicular or prostate cancer in the animal.
3. We control the population in every colony, hopefully we reduce the number of complaints from people who hate animals, and hence, reduce the number of animals being captured by the councils.
An unspayed female cat can reproduce 4 times a year and an unspayed dog 2 times a year. By simple arithmetic, it's an exponential increase.
If anyone of us has seen the suffering of street animals, held a dying baby animal in our arms because she or he is rescued a few hours too late, or visited those animals captured or born in the pounds and those who die a miserable death on the streets, one would see that the pros outweigh the cons.
Bobtail died in my arms in Feb 2010.
We did everything for him, but failed to save his life.
In one of the dog pounds in Dec 2009.
We are still trying to convince that rescuer to spay-neuter his 100 over dogs (we're doing it for free, mind you). But if he continues to resist, we'll have to just respect his beliefs and wish and hope for a good life for his dogs.
Spay-Neuter is NOT killing.
Euthanasia at the pounds is.
Being rolled over by a car is.
Dying of starvation on the streets is.
In every religion, as far as I know, we are taught NOT to kill. Spay-neuter is NOT killing. It may result in death IF things go wrong sometimes, but our intention is NOT to kill. Euthanasia IS killing, whatever the reasons, whatever people call it, it IS killing.
"Karma", as far as I understand, is "intention", not action. What is our intention in getting them spayed-neutered - to save them and to prevent unwanted offsprings from being born. What can be so evil about that? Animals are ignorant and cannot practise birth control. They act on instinct, not intelligence or reason when it comes to matters of reproduction.
I have been told repeatedly not to humanise animals and I won't. I'm told that dogs and cats, especially the females, do not enjoy the sexual act. Only humans and dolphins enjoy it. The sexual act is an instinctive act in them. If the female animal gets pregnant repeatedly, there is danger of pyometra or death in her later years.
During the Ketam tragedy, we made a few trips up to talk to the village leaders. One leader told me it is wrong to spay-neuter as it is interferring with nature. True. But is it right when the councils go in to kill the animals or the people capture them and drown them in the sea? Is that natural? To this, he replied, "That's them doing it, not me, so it's none of my business", and he walked away. Then I asked, "If I offer you a way to control their population so that they won't breed anymore, are you interested?" He said no.
As much as I agree we do not have the consent of the animal to get it spayed-neutered, I believe very strongly that we are doing a lesser evil by getting them spayed-neutered rather than to leave them on the streets to be captured, to die or to suffer.
But as always, it takes all kinds to make the world, so we'll just do whatever we think is best for the animals.
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