The hub and I took the dogs to the vet yesterday. They got their booster shots and their new county registrations, we bought new flea and tick prevention and some more heartworm prevention and our lovely canine companions have been declared to be in perfect health! I'm so pleased for them. We even spoke to the behavioural specialist and turns out - we have not been using their harnesses properly. She showed us how to put them on the right way and then we took the dogs outside together and they were so much easier to handle! They didn't even try to drag us! Wow. Now that we know what to do, they might be nearly as well-behaved outdoors as they are in the house (they are such sweet and loving gentlemen in the house).
I only experienced one problem on our little outing to the doggie doctor (besides being in a medical office in the first place). Our male dogs are sexually intact. You would not BELIEVE the pressure tactics the vets will put on people to try to make them have their dogs neutered. It was awful. But I did not relent. As far as I have ever known, sterilization is only to prevent unwanted pregnancies, right? Enter the political and special interest agenda. My dogs are fully contained and restrained and NEVER without human supervision. Yeah, they will pull on a leash to run and smell nature, but this is NORMAL (plus, we have not been using the leash right and did not yet know it). So once the vet hears that there is no danger of unwanted litters, he hones in on the only complaint we have about them, which is the pulling on the leash. And so, since unwanted litters are not the issue, we should have our healthy dogs castrated to change their behaviour. Sorry, I think behavioural training (or proper leash and harness use) is more to the point and I will not mutilate an animal for its failure to pretend to be a human.
So then he moved on. We should have our dogs' balls chopped off FOR THEIR HEALTH. Holy christ on a cracker. Do people still believe this sort of thing? I don't like my husband's behaviour sometimes, either. Maybe I should chop off his huevos? I mean - COME ON - if I chopped them off right now, he would never, ever be able to get testicular cancer later. And I should chop off my thumbs so I will never again hit them with a hammer. I know my husband's chances of getting testicular cancer are very small to start with, but still... What harm could castration do aside from an increased risk of other, more prevalent cancers and increasing the risk of heart disease, disease-causing hormone imbalances, arthritis, hip dysplasia and bone diseases, etc... And yes, I found lots of research to back me up in this. Goddamn. I live in a world of brainwashed idiots who never research ANYTHING. Even when it is their job to dispense helpful advice.
Animals have finally achieved equality. Their doctors are just as willing to maim them as ours are to maim us. But for folks like me who stand squarely in the way. And NO - I won't budge. There is no valid medical reason to castrate my dogs. They are very young, they need their vitality and they are not being harmed by having balanced hormones. The political machine and the special interest may blind the rest, but they won't get me and they won't destroy the wonderful health of my animals. If there ever comes a time in the future when castration would physically benefit my dogs and improve their health, I would do it. But there is no reason to do things like that routinely in the absence of a valid medical reason when birth control is not an issue.
I will protect myself and my charges even when it's unpopular and I will never apologize for it. Just as I protect myself from the disease that is psychiatry and the harm of unhealed therapists, I will protect my dogs from health-destroying mutilations. And I don't give one fucking rip who likes it. For anyone who hasn't noticed, I ain't running for Miss Congeniality. Honesty is my only agenda. And that is a VERY unpopular agenda in such a very sick and dysfunctional world as the one in which we all live. To me, that sounds like tough shit to those who can't stand the truth. Because I'll NEVER shut up. EVER. And I'll never knuckle under to the bullshit in the hopes of being 'liked'. I have no desire to be liked by people who are stupid, brainwashed and cannot think for themselves. I simply have no pressing use for people like that.
