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Neutering a sore subject for male dog owners
For many male dog owners, the thought of neutering hits a little too close to home. But the SPCA has a request for men who identify too closely with their pets: Get over it.
Tuesday, September 07, 2004
By Chris Bynum
Staff writer
Jonathan Hirdes and his dog, Rock, have a couple of things in common.
"I don't want to be neutered," said Hirdes, a 20-year-old construction worker whose Staffordshire bull terrier, Rock, remains intact. "People say a dog is the spitting image of his owner. Why would I have his manhood taken away from him? When you see a dog walking down the street without testicles, you just assume the dog is female.
"Neutering your dog is like making him a drag queen."
For Hirdes, Rock and countless other guys and dogs, a simple snip can be a complex issue. But that snip is the sound heard 'round the neighborhood when it comes to preserving the health and well-being of animals and cutting down on the number of homeless dogs and cats roaming the streets.
Louisiana Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Executive Director Laura Maloney has met many men who share Hirdes' views. Changing their mindset, she said, is essential to gaining control of a growing stray animal problem in New Orleans, which contributes its share of the 8 million to 10 million dogs that land in U.S. shelters each year, according to the Humane Society of the United States. Half of those are euthanized because there are no homes for them.
"When I ask men why they don't neuter their dogs, they give many reasons," Maloney said. "But so often, men make a personal association with what it would be like for them to be neutered. They also believe the dog will become more feminine, will lose muscle mass, and . . . well, lose his life force. They also like their animal's personality, and they are afraid it will change."
The fears are unfounded. Neutering, she said, "doesn't change basic dogness."
What it does change, said Dr. Rolan Tripp, a California veterinarian and animal behaviorist, it changes for the better: Neutered male dogs are less likely to engage in fights with other male dogs, less likely to urinate as a way to mark territory, and less likely to escape the yard and roam the neighborhood -- a leading cause of death among canine and feline pets.
In addition to lifestyle improvements, health risks for the animal are lowered, said Dr. Brian Ghere of Prytania Veterinary Hospital and president of Charity Animal Hospital.
"Neutering prevents testicular cancer, and lowers the risk of perianal gland tumors, hernias and prostrate disease," he said.
But the positive reasons for neutering still can't overcome the fact that some men, well, feel their dog's pain. That may be at least partly an outgrowth of man's evolving relationship with dogs, from "most reliable helper" to "best friend."
These days, "Good Morning America" veterinary expert Marty Becker said, "Dogs in households have an emotional role rather than a utilitarian one. Not many of them are herding cattle, retrieving ducks and protecting our stuff. So the aggressive nature isn't in demand like it once was."
Dog owners, both men and women, identify with their pets. And that shared identity, Becker said, can be manifested in an attitude that "real men don't listen to the Dixie Chicks, eat quiche or neuter their dogs."
Becker suspects that a pack mentality also comes into play. "Never ask a guy on a construction site with his co-workers or poker night around his buddies if he has plans to neuter his male dog," he said. "Get him alone, and you might get a different answer."
Becker said he has sat outside veterinarians' offices and watched patients come and go, just to study the private interaction between humans and animals.
"The guy who handed off the small dog to the vet saying it was his wife's dog, and he was just dropping it off, or never said a thing in front of the vet as his dog was pushed and probed, could later be seen talking baby talk to console his precious baby once inside the car," he said.
There are "forces at work much larger than what Bob Jones thinks about neutering his pet," said Tripp, a frequent guest on television's "Animal Planet" and the founder of www.animalbehavior.net, an online consulting service for owners of pets with behavior problems. "There are subconscious, philosophical, psychological and evolutionary reasons behind" male opposition to neutering.
"Males are better at spreading genes than females," Tripp said, and for some men, anything that threatens that is suspect.
Aaron Friedman can relate. Six years ago, the retired businessman adopted a show dog from Illinois -- an Italian greyhound whose stud hopes were dashed when the owners discovered he had a slight imperfection at 14 months old. Since he was no longer "perfect" in breed standards, the owners agreed to put him up for adoption if the new owners vowed to neuter him and forgo pedigree papers.
Friedman headed to the veterinarian to fulfill the promise he made, but when he realized the procedure meant his precious Leonardo's testicles would be removed, Friedman balked.
"I said, 'No, no, no! That's out,' " recalled Friedman, who felt very strongly that eliminating a dog's testicles is "not humane."
"A dog doesn't want to walk around without testicles," he said. "I'm taking his side as well as mine.
"It's a guy thing."
Dr. Amy Grayson of Lakeview Veterinary Hospital, his veterinarian, suggested Neuticles, or faux testicles. A cosmetic replacement for the real thing was all Friedman needed to make him comfortable fulfilling the promise he had made while maintaining his dog's visual "manhood."
Neuticles are not news; they were introduced a decade ago. But the continuing demand for this purely cosmetic canine procedure is evidence of the powerful human emotions that neutering often evokes.
And it's not just men who get attached to their dog's testicles. Grayson recalled a female client who wrestled with putting her French bulldog under the knife.
"But his kiwis are so cute!" she objected.
And then there was the husband and wife who brought in their Shar-Pei to discuss the neutering options. The woman relented only after learning of the Neuticles silicone replacements.
"Oh," she said, "those will be as natural as my breast implants!"
Clearly, Tripp said, humans are projecting their own insecurities onto their canine and feline companions.
"We don't know what (pets) think," he said. "Behavior is the study of what they do. Psychology is what they think. And (a dog) can't tell us what he thinks."
But that doesn't stop dog owners from trying to intuit their dogs' feelings. Friedman, for example, thinks Leonardo has moved on since the surgery.
"I'm not trying to go into his mind, but, yes, he has adjusted. He still does that dog sniffing thing. And once in awhile, when he's frisky, he will still try to hump you."
Friedman said he is content with his decision to neuter. But it's a decision that men will continue to grapple with. The challenge for veterinarians and animal rescuers is conveying the health issues facing the pet population while attending to the emotional issues facing the animal owners.
Ghere tells his male clients, "Emotionally, animals have an instinct to want to go breed. If they are not allowed, they are frustrated. They will act out when they smell a female dog several blocks away. The male dog wants to go out and do what Mother Nature wants him to do. If he can't, he will chew and bark and be miserable. I explain to a male client that while he may think he is being kind if he doesn't neuter his dog, he is really sentencing his dog to a lifelong sentence of being frustrated."
Maloney of the SPCA takes another tack.
"I've explained that dogs do not think about copulation in the same way as humans," she said. "It's an instinctual act (for them), not something they look forward to on Saturday night."
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A friend of ours some years back was horrified when we scheduled a 'snipping' of RB Max's batonga-wongas. 
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