Journey Companions
Sterilization?
Sterilization, do we agree...
Sterilization is a surgical process that removes the testicles or uterus of animals to make them 100% sterile and infertile. Many people think that depriving animals of their reproductive rights is inhumane, but in fact, sterilization is the wisest choice. First of all, don't confuse neutering with sterilization. They are both methods of preventing animals from having the next generation, but neutering just binds the fallopian tubes or vas deferens of animals. Sterilization basically means the removal of sex organs directly, and can prevent more problems than neutering. Sterilization can directly cut off the source of estrus. Neutered animals still secrete pheromones after neutering to attract the opposite sex to mate, but sterilized animals do not produce pheromones.
From a social perspective, sterilization reduces stray animals by an immense scale. Dogs generally go into the mating phase twice a year, and if they mate successfully both times, they can give birth to dozens of puppies a year. A dog can produce anywhere from three to twelve puppies at a time, depending on the size of the dog. If a small dog can give birth to three puppies every year, and those three puppies will be born again after a year, then there will be nine puppies, then twenty-seven, eighty-one, two hundred and forty-three. ..and this does not include puppies born after dogs that have already been born. Even worse, most people choose to abandon these new-born puppies. At this rate of production, stray dogs will soon fill the streets, and the shelter simply cannot accommodate so many dogs, meaning their final fate is to be euthanized. Sterilization can easily prevent all of these tragedies from happening.
In terms of individual benefits, sterilization can reduce the incidence of many diseases. Sterilization can reduce the probability of prostate hypertrophy, prostate cancer, testicular tumor, and perianal gland tumors in male dogs, and can also prevent mammary gland tumors, pyometra, endometritis, ovarian cysts and other lesions in female dogs. It could even extend your dog's lifespan. After neutering, bitches will no longer have menstruation and false pregnancy problems. Although sterilization is risky, it is currently the least costly under various evaluations.
Therefore, sterilization is almost certainly the best option to lessen stray dogs. Although some people choose to sterilize their pets just because they can't stand the behavior of animals in the mating phase, the problems that sterilization can solve are far greater than this. In addition to reducing the occurrence of some diseases, it can also reduce the waste of social resources - seeing as the average cost of management and euthanasia of abandoned pets is about 4811 NTD per dog. Therefore, if you have animals at home, sterilizing them is a very good and effective method to prevent reproduction. (by Trinity)
(by Camille/Trinity)
Do you disagree with Sterilization
Sterilization proves to be effective in some areas, but this effectiveness comes with the prerequisite that the sterilization covers both of the dogs that are beginning to mate. The ratio of sterilized to not sterilized dogs needs to be high enough that the effects reach the whole community. If only a part of the community is sterilized, any endeavor to stop reproduction is doomed to fail. According to research and modeling experiments, all dog communities require an at least 75 percent sterilization rate to effectively prevent all unwanted reproduction.
Seeing as Taiwan is a relatively isolated island that has little to none opportunities for entrance of foreign dogs, the only outliers that may appear in a dog community anywhere in Taiwan are the strays that nobody seems to be able to track. And just because of this fact that nobody is able to track these strays, it is almost impossible to always guarantee a 75% sterilization rate. And therein lies the problem. Sterilization is not ineffective, it is merely implausible, impossible to consider all the changing factors. (by Andy/Camille)