While our mammal brains are suppose to be capable of handling situations with compassion and empathy, many humans lack the experiences, knowledge, or open mind to guide these in productive and meaningful ways. Being transgendered, knowing since I was 8 years old, has offered me a unique perspective on our treatment of other animals.
So to address this point anthropomorphically, spay and neuter programs are forcing animals to live with gender disphoria, a horror I have lived for 40 years now because humanity lacks compassion. So I have worked against these spay and neuter programs from behind the curtains, but now it's time to bring this fight to the spotlight.
The double standard we see between how we treat humans and our more distant relatives illustrates that the entire notion of spay and neuter is a scam. To justify this scam they often cite phenomena that humans are responsible for causing.
MYTH: Cats and dogs will overpopulate.
FACT: Due to our intervention, domesticated animals are less capable of surviving against predators. This means that their populations can only increase if we remove possible predators.
During our existence, we have driven nearly half of all life on this planet extinct through our actions. The result is a decline in natural diversity, and we still continue to hunt all other animals without prejudice.
The resulting imbalance has created a need for animals which can live with us, as a species. The number of possible candidates decreases as we poison entire populations out of baseless fears perpetuated by profit hungry businesses.
We have a unique chance to reintroduce some variety among the species that can survive in the world we created, the domesticated species are perfect for this. Their diversity and resilience to our artificial environment make them ideal, and nature loves such situations.
MYTH: The cats and dogs cannot fend for themselves.
FACT: Yes, but to admit this you also admit that your claims of overpopulation are fallacious. This is a tactic that feeds on empathy in order to perpetuate the industry, the same way tobacco companies would advertise.
MYTH: They can spread disease to humans if allowed to be wild.
FACT: Most illnesses cannot be transmitted across species. Of the few that can, we have vaccines now.
Modern medicine has allowed humans to survive deadly illnesses, it has also extended our lifespan causing our own overpopulation. Yes, medicine is one of the primary causes of overpopulation.
The only possible way for cats and dogs to overpopulate is by treating them all with our medicine. Without medicine, overpopulation is impossible.
MYTH: Invasive species are dangerous.
FACT: Often this us used to appeal to fear when all other tactics fail. The fact is that there are no truly invasive species, other species in the environment will evolve, causing them to adapt to the new ecosystem created by any newly introduced species.
MYTH: Spay and neuter causes no harm to them.
FACT: Yes, it causes drastic physiological changes to all mammals, ask a doctor why they require invasive psychoanalysis for the humans who request this. Hormones are regulated, balanced, based on the gamete producers, hormones control our emotions.
So yes, by torturing me and removing my right to choose to have mine removed willingly, you prove that this procedure is dangerous. I am able to take medication to regulate my hormones, yet they cannot.
So to cause that harm to them is immoral, life in a body you do not like because of one tiny thing is torture. My two feline companions are the only thing keeping me from harming others, and your pricing of licenses is solely for profit.
Funding spay and neuter clinics is wrong, immoral, and heinous.
Related articles of importance:
Gamete production, sex hormone secretion, and mating behavior uncoupled
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0018506X84900473
Hormone Effects on Behavior
http://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007%2F978-1-4614-1997-6_59
Steroid hormone effects on neurons subserving behavior
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0959438895801103
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The statistics of natural selection on animal populations.
http://www.cabdirect.org/abstracts/19850191884.html;jsessionid=888180779C57444ADC1C2914136C3C38
Life historical consequences of natural selection
http://repository.ias.ac.in/10284/
The strength of phenotypic selection in natural populations
http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/319193
Can you write a series of blogposts on the spay neuter issue (health, behavioral, cultural, and ethical), both as it applies to cats and in general?
ReplyDeleteHere is my website on the issue as it applies to cats. It's called Hormonally Intact and Responsible: Cats.
Hormonally Intact and Responsible: Cats: http://intactcatsresponsiblecare.weebly.com