Sterilizing

To accommodate my clients, I was obligated throughout my career to perform many operations and procedures that I came to dislike enormously, like declawing cats, debarking dogs, trimming ears, cutting tails and feathers and removing anal glands from ferrets. I even came to hate doing spays and castrations.

These alterations make animals more appealing, easier to manage and less dangerous; they also eliminate unwanted, and sometimes embarrassing, ''uncivilized'' sexual behaviors and other biological functions that are out of place in a society that is not made for animals. These amputations are strictly for the benefit of the owner. They serve no therapeutic or medical purpose. They are not surgeries in the true sense of the word. The word ''mutilation'' is much more appropriate.

Let me just stop here and clarify a few things about spaying and neutering and their real purpose. Although at this time, these procedures are essential, it is false to assume that they could be the answer to the population explosion. This problem is rather related to consumerism and a very aggressive promotion by the pet industry.

While the larger issues remain unaddressed, neutering at the consumer level has very little impact on the over-all numbers of stray and unwanted pets. In fact, it encourages consumerism by giving the consumer a false impression that the problem is being taken care of. This perception is largely responsible for the present unprecedented popularity of pets. America and rich Western societies have truly gone pet-crazy. As long as the pet industry survives, there will be incurable population issues.

Its the same problem with the recycling of domestic wastes. In 30 years, the recycling rate for the United States has risen from 7 % to 28 %. Between 1970 and 1994, the recycling rate of paper for instance went from 15 % (6 million tons) to 35 % (28 million tons). Marvellous and a great step ahead for humanity. Right ? So what’s the problem ? It's in what we are not being told: in the same period of time we wasted 14,7 million tons more than in 1970.

In other words, neutering and adoption are like treating a fever instead of the infection; we are focusing on what is only a symptom of a society's quiet disease. Meanwhile, things just keep on getting worse. This point of view is mostly ignored by veterinarians and humane societies who study the overpopulation problem with the help of grants from the pharmaceutical and feed companies. I'll let you come to your own conclusions about why this is so.

In this context, having a pet spayed is like going to church on Sunday just so we can enjoy sinning throughout the week. Its a form of sentimentalism, a way to continue loving animals without having to pay the price: stop consuming and exploiting them for all the wrong reasons.

Spaying and neutering, the possibility of adopting an animal from a shelter, and the existence of animal activists - all these things let us off the hook easy. As long as we adopt a pet from death row and get him neutered, we feel clear of conscience. We feel it's up to humane societies to do the rest. We indulge ourselves in fantasies about the human-pet bond, confident that we've done our part to improve the fate of animals. We feel like a part of the solution.

But it's a con. Our society not only condones, but encourages our relationship with pets which is nothing but a subtle form of slavery. Shelters and humane organizations play a shamefully important role in this masquerade.