*slaps palm to face* Why do I bother?

[All4Grace]

Our neighbor has a 19yr old son, great kid, very friendly, sweet, loves animals and smart. He actually house sits for us on occasion.

He drives me CRAZY with one little thing. He is of the mentally that it is cruel to spay or neuter your pets.

Last night he overheard me say I had to bring Charlie in for the "snip snip", he got upset with me and went on and on about how cruel it is to the animals to do that.

No matter how many times I tell him, it's far crueler to let them be, have many babies that will end up starving and dying on the streets, he just doesn't get it.

His dog is a mutt, intact, they had a pug for a while, he was intact, they gave him away because he kept peeing on everything in the house. Um.... HELLLOOO!!!!

He used to bug and bug to let us breed his rabbit or ours when Ester was still alive, um no.

He is always asking why I won't breed Gracie.

So finally, last night, I told him.

"Look, we don't believe in allowing our animals to run about making more babies. We believe in fixing them so that they do not add to the unwanted population of strays already out there. While I don't agree with your position on this, I respect it. Please stop hounding me about our choices on NOT adding to the population and respect it."

I think I FINALLY got through to him.

Anyone else have stories about friends or people that just didn't quite get it!? :rolleyes:

[natisha]

I don't have stories but happy to hear you set him straight. Too many people, mainly young men, relate to how they would feel if they were the animal but neglect to realize the frustration some animalas go through being intact.
Show him the Petfinder site, that should be enough to convince him once & for all.

Oh, you bother because it's the right thing to do.

[carla]

My FIL is the same way. They have an intact Rott and he thinks it's so silly to fix pets. I think it's silly to risk the complications from not doing it, plus we all know more hormones=more problems. :p

[FredRock]

My ex boyfriend got really nervous when I told him that Fred was gelded and that I'd never own a stallion. :innocent:

My roommate has puppies that are from a brother and sister dog because they don't spay or neuter, but apparently it's the parents that are the problem. I think they're getting the male fixed after the latest litter.

[Remali]

Good for you, it sounds like he needed to be told how it really is.

It is kind of odd, isn't it, that most people who think that way are men.... LOL... sorry, just sort of made me chuckle a bit.... ;)

I have to say tho.... that I do know of one person who never spayed or neutered their animals, and it was a woman.... but in her case I think she just didn't want to spend the money (that really drives me totally insane....).

[Aina]

Well, the reason men think that way as opposed to women is this.
Man parts are very important to men. They, uh, really care about them.
Woman parts make us act irrational for three days and then cramp and bleed out our rear for more. Men think that it is crazy to snip a dog because they would hate it. Women think about how nice it would be fixed because then we wouldn't have to deal with the monthly messies. (I know it doesn't always work that way, but still...)

[Remali]

LOL.... that's a different take on it.... hadn't considered that one... ;)
I think more men think more irrational than women do, because I never got those funky mood swings, but maybe I was lucky....LOL.

I always figured it's because men are more cheap than women, and don't want to spend the money on spaying and neutering.

[Ragnar Danneskjold]

Hmm... I dunno. I've never had a problem with spaying or neutering animals. I don't think I've ever really equated it with any sort of threat to my own, uh... parts.

To me, and maybe for other men, it's more about always wanting to keep our options open. We men like to do that, and we tend to resist things that cut down our future decisions, even if they're as yet unknown. I can see wanting to keep a dog unaltered if I had the slightest thought that I might someday want to breed him or her. But once that decision is made, and it must be made first, then no problem... we'll beat feet to the vets for 'tutoring'.

Works the same the way we deal with wimmin' folk too. It's not a "fear of commitment". Never was. We commit to all sorts of things at the drop of a hat. But damn... "forever" is such an awfully long time... it's more of an exhaustion thing. :)

[ducking and running]

[Fork]

The only person who ever had a problem with it that I knew of was my best friend but it was a cost issue. Her dog is on litter #4. They sell the mutt puppies for $200 each to "pay for the spaying surgery." I have a feeling it's never going to happen. So many unwanted puppies and kittens out there. Why make more? I'm glad you got it through to him. :)

[Gliderider]

I know of a few older people that believe it ruins the dogs/cats some how. That once spayed or nurtured they are lazy and don't act the same. I have never had spaying or nurturing change my dogs or cats in anyway but you can't convince them.

[zoel_222]

I know of a few older people that believe it ruins the dogs/cats some how. That once spayed or nurtured they are lazy and don't act the same. I have never had spaying or nurturing change my dogs or cats in anyway but you can't convince them.

It has changed my animals. My barn cat which is shared between me and my neighbor wasn't neutered for a long time (neighbor kept saying she was going to take him in "in just a couple days" for several months). He was an aggressive, people-shy, tough-ass tomcat who was a really good mouser. He got neutered and he turned into a lovey-dovey lazy thing that slept all day and gained like 5 pounds and never left the hay barn and was never a good mouser.

Brian in Peter's fantasy on what he'd be like once he got neutered.
YouTube - Brian loves chocolate

Now I am 100% for spaying and neutering, all my animals are, but it is possible that it can change them, especially if you have a performance animal. Just think about stallions vs geldings.