21–30 of 67 posts
Somewhat ironic to find this post two links above the one about lab rats getting tortured for "science". I guess rats are uglier.
I for one find this kind of cognitive dissonance extremely upsetting and a bit perplexing. People are easily able to compartmentalize their feelings about various animals. This leads to neat little groups - food, pet, science experiment. It's very frustrating to me.
Why? We're human beings--all we do is categorize...
Who doesn't want their new pet to live longer?
I've been volunteering there for a year and have never had a problem with a dog. Their population is almost exclusively pitbulls and they've all been great.
I started freelancing a few months ago and my first client was http://www.wagaroo.com The site is built with rails and ember.js. It's very MVP right now and any feedback is appreciated.
They just got started and are only working with shelters and rescues for now. Their ultimate plan is to include responsible breeders and fight the puppy mills but they are taking their time in order gain understanding and to find the best way to make it happen.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Pets are simply the sad side effect of humanity. What exactly is that supposed to mean? Pets can give their owners all kinds of health benefits, emotionally, and otherwise. Humanity isn't all bad, last I checked. I do enjoy my dog.
Sorry, allow me to clarify, the pet overpopulation problem* is simply a said side effect to humanity.
It is worth noting that the campaign to make spaying and neutering required has also done considerable harm. Puppies are often spayed and neutered as young as 6 weeks, despite the numerous health problems associated with the practice. Even the standard 6 months causes significant increases in a number of health problems. We need to stop punishing our pets based on the notion that if we don't get them fixed early, the…
Yes, mostly because dogs, in general, can be easily fenced in. Cats, however, are much more wily.
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Do you have any sources for this? Vets and shelters I have had contact with indicate only a slight increased risk. I don't have their sources handy, but I do know they've researched the issue extensively. In general, only the more "old-fashioned" vets have qualms about early spaying and neutering. As to magic spores... well in a shelter environment if a puppy goes out intact it will likely not be fixed by the new own…
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10225598 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12433723 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9691849 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3506104 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11202221 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15577502 http://avmajournals.avma.org/doi/abs/10.2460/javma.2004.224.... http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11787155 http://www.grca.org/health/bigfour_hypo.html >In g…
Some vets agree with you and consider it unethical. Many other vets disagree.
Haven't read these all yet, but should note:
Conclusions and Clinical Relevance—Because earlyage gonadectomy appears to offer more benefits than risks for male dogs, animal shelters can safely gonadectomize male dogs at a young age and veterinary practitioners should consider recommending routine gonadectomy for client-owned male dogs before the traditional age of 6 to 8 months. For female dogs, however, increased urinary incontinence suggests that delaying gonadectomy until at least 3 months of age may be beneficial. ( J Am Vet Med Assoc 2004; 224:380–387) (http://avmajournals.avma.org/doi/abs/10.2460/javma.2004.224....)
As to your dog, assuming it's adult what does early age neutering have to do with the situation?
Sounds like you're getting some heat from others about your decision to not neuter an adult male dog. That's a different debate that has nothing to do with neutering dogs at a younger age.
Somewhat ironic to find this post two links above the one about lab rats getting tortured for "science". I guess rats are uglier.
I for one find this kind of cognitive dissonance extremely upsetting and a bit perplexing. People are easily able to compartmentalize their feelings about various animals. This leads to neat little groups - food, pet, science experiment. It's very frustrating to me.
Not so neat. Some people eat dog and some have pet rats.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I for one find this kind of cognitive dissonance extremely upsetting and a bit perplexing. People are easily able to compartmentalize their feelings about various animals. This leads to neat little groups - food, pet, science experiment. It's very frustrating to me.
>This leads to neat little groups Not so neat. Some people eat dog and some have pet rats.
Very happy to see this on HN. I have never understood why people are willing to purchase dogs. Between the conditions of large-scale breeders and the amount of animals waiting in shelters, it's just absurd.
Large-scale breeders and shelters are not the only two choices; I adopted my most recent dog from a family on a farm.
Perhaps in an ideal world, no more dogs would be born until all existing dogs have a permanent home. But that seems unlikely to happen. If nobody adopts the new-born dogs, then would not they just end up in a shelter? If the blame belongs anywhere, it's on those who (at a large scale or at a small scale) breed their dogs, not on the people who adopt them.