Agnostic Animal Lover
- I don't have definite religious views, but I have friends that do. I respect their beliefs and they respect mine. Here it seem like those of strong faith are blindly quoting some holy-written animal bible without listening to logic. As a cat owner, I would feel personally responsible if my cat got pregnant. What would I do with the kittens? Animal shelters are overpopulated, and it would be against my moral conscience to let them die in the wilderness. If you have an animal to be responsible for, put aside your personal convictions and think about what would be best for it. When your dog or cat gets sick, you give it medicine or take it to a clinic to help it get better. Or are there people here that just sit around watching their pets die in agony because they believe divine intervention will cure them? That's called being ignorent, and not fixing a pet is ignorent too; when you KNOW there's something you can do to prevent the loss of young life, why on earth wouldn't you do it?
- —Guest Kyasarin
Hypocracy
- If you will not use this same logic with humans why use it with animals , we are all gods creatures, there are health benefits in fixing humans as there are in fixing animals. Hypocrites
- —Guest TOKEN
Do you?
- For those of you that preach that it's wrong to spay or neuter a cat have any understanding about why responsible owners do so. I volunteer at a shelter and I have spent hundreds of hours there, working with cats both feral and not. They come in bleeding, suffering, curled into small balls to try to escape the pain. Their eyes are terrified, they are covered in bites form where they have had flees, and you can see their ribs. This is what happens when there is not enough food to feed them all, when they are forced to salvage for garbage and live on the streets. We did this. We domesticated these animals and let them breed out of control, even encouraging it. You might argue that it is playing God to do spay or nueter our pets but it was playing God to breed them. A cat takes five months to starve to death. I, at least, can sleep at night knowing that I didn't consign any prospective kittens to what as well be called torture. Five months to starve to death. I wouldn't be able to sleep.
- —Guest Haruka
Is Spay and Neuter OK with God?
- God gave man dominion over animals. I do not see a problem with S/N from a Christian perspective. Animals are not capable of having control over their desires like humans.God put us in charge.
- —Guest Darleen
Unwantedness is the real problem
- The spay/neuter movement helps at a micro level but does not solve the real problem: which is a hardening of heart against animals in this society. Foreclosure victims who move to apartments have to get rid of pets, because of draconian policies. The attitudes that have accompanied urbanization are a big part of the problem-- we put animals in ghettos, ie shelters, where we cannot see them, and forget they exist. I have spayed/ neutered my pets because I cannot keep their offspring. But this is a stopgap and as a Christian I recognize that in a better world we wouldn't all have to mutilate our animals to keep their offspring from getting gassed. If everyone took in one stray cat, what a difference we could all make in this problem! Solving the real problem of wanting the unwanted is the Christian attitude! Until hearts change there's no good answer just the lesser of two evils... but why not try to change our hearts? My two cents.
- —Guest Mary
Not a question of God... but ethics.
- I've read that spaying your dog provides health benefits such as prevention from ovarian cancer and other diseases associated with the reproductive tract. Although if that argument is valid, would one not say that having the same surgery in a human would elicit the same health benefits (e.g. without ovaries you won't have ovarian cancer!). Has anyone thought of the negative health implications of spaying? Other than the surgical risk factors such as infection and anesthesia adverse reactions, would removing a large source of their natural female hormones affect the natural function and regulation of bodily process'? I'm sure humans with decreased progesterone and estrogen would have negative effects.. (eg menopause with hot flashes). As for overpopulation, if your pet is a stay at home pet and does not leave the house what chance would they have to mate anyway? Is spaying your pet only for the sake of human convenience? Is it right to surgically remove organs under our reasons?
- —Guest Guest
Excellent Question!
- I think that is a perfectly good question and I myself have thought the same thing. But the bible says that God gave us dominion over the animals so it isn't wrong. And it is a good thing to do because your cat will just keep having kittens forever. And I'm getting my cat spayed only because we've ran out of people to give kittens to.
- —Guest Unknown
are you kidding me
- Religion really needs to stay out of the argument. How about just discussing the health benefits to S/N. The toms will be less prone to cancer and will be less agressive and will not spray and that the queens will be less prone to cancer and will not get pyometra which is a horrible and ususally fatal uterine infection they can only get if they are not spayed. To extend the argument I hope none of you declaw your cats that is really inhumane.
- —Guest cat lover
God and S/N
- I really do not see any groundswell of opinion saying that spay/neuter is against God's Law. I am a pro-life Christian, and consider S/N to be much preferable to the creation of many litters that will have no homes and wing up being killed. One poster here even said that unwanted kittens should be released in a forest! What would he expect to happen then? I have three cats, two females and a male. All have been S/N from an early age. It is simply the right thing to do. Les
- —Guest Lesforan
What the heck?!
- ok i think that we should spay and neuter cats because i have personally seen kittens being thrown out of a car in a cardboard box on the side of the road.
- —Guest Emily
No wonder we have such an overpopulation
- After reading the responses of so many ignorant people, I can understand why there are so many suffering animals in the world. Some of the ideas stated in these responses are beyond comprehension. Picking them all up and "bringing" (sic) them to a forest to let them fend for themselves...horrors! God has made humans, the only creature able to reason (although that is doubtful in many cases, proven by the absurd things people have said in this forum), stewards of the environment and the earth's creatures. We have made a mess of it and now we must look after all the helpless animals whose lives have been affected adversely. We must do ALL WE CAN to keep the population down in order to protect the pets that we already have. If there is any chance WHATSOEVER that your animal could mate (i.e. escape from your house) it needs to be s/n to prevent unwanted babies. Thousands upon thousands of animals, unable to fend for themselves, are killed each year. God doesn't want that! You can help.
- —Guest cynde
Politically respect
- God and religion is not relevant. Nor is the question whether its "natural" or not. What we need to do is look at the medical reasons for and against neutering as well as ofcourse the ethical aspects. Why are we neutering our pets. Is it because we care about their health or is it just an easy solution? There are no medical reasons to neuter a male dog for example. Science can tell us that. Females are a different issue. Most people are unaware of the medical aspects of castration. Whats politically correct is not always correct and in this case its really not. I would never neuter my dog.
- —Guest Carl Minez
Different Situations
- I believe that if you have an indoor, "mixed-breed" cat that you don't want to have kittens and don't have a yard big enough to acommodate them when they're in heat (such as an urban apartment), you should spay or neuter them. But if you have a cat that's a rare breed, an outdoor cat, or want them to have kittens, then don't.
- —Guest Crene
We have to "fix" our past mistakes
- It's too late not to play god. Humans started doing that a long time ago. Now we are stuck in a world we created where natural predators are no longer there to control the population naturally. Spaying and neutering are a humane way to help nature be the way god intended it to be.
- —Guest Leo
Know the word of God, then speak
- Amazing just amazing! Most of the people who responded to this question are not Christians and most people didn't answer the question. The truth is that God does not want cats and dogs and (what ever else we're mutilating) to be S/N. S/N is inhumane. But like someone else has already posted, we people have created a problem that we are now desperately trying to fix. God did not tell us to go out and take cats and dogs out of the wild. God knew what he was doing when he put them where he put them. So what do we do now? I believe the best course of action is to realize this fact and remember that our pets are God's creature's first and that he has given us dominion (ruler ship). We should respect God's wisdom and put all the unwanted cats and dogs back where we got them from. Most will probably die, but that is what is necessary to fix the problem. For those that do survive they will control there own population by breeding less often, food supply, strong out living the weak...ect.
- —Guest The one who is loved
