Home Neutering of Dogs in Canada Sparks Outrage

The practice is horrific. The dogs suffer. Yet people still attempt to save a few bucks by neutering their dogs at home.

You wouldn't think that an SPCA would have to speak out pleading with people to not neuter their dogs by wrapping industrial rubber rings around their testicles, causing intense pain and suffering. But that's exactly what happening in Canada. 

Kaley Pugh, manager of protection services at the Saskatchewan SPCA, is fielding reports from vets about the practice, and she's had enough. She told CBC News, "This is not an acceptable practice in dogs. They really do suffer a lot when you do this to them."

"The photographs I've seen are quite shocking," said Pugh. "Animals with significant wounds and bleeding and rotting tissue still attached to the animal."

Pugh says the SPCA could start to prosecute owners, according to CBS News. "Owners who put the health and safety of their dogs at risk through home neutering practices may be charged for violations of the Animal Protection Act and/or the Criminal Code."

Apparently, the practice is done on farms to livestock, using "elastrator rings" (which is itself controversial). Some dog owners think the practice is transferable to dogs. It is not. It's torture. Aside from the extreme pain, the dogs lick and chew the area, causing intense trauma.

Dr. Terri Chotowitz of the Cumberland Veterinary clinic in Saskatoon told CTV News, "There's no way you can get that [elastrator ring] tight enough without causing a lot of discomfort for the dog. I can only imagine how much chewing and licking and trauma they are doing to that area, trying to get that off. To use an elastrator ring is terrible and it doesn't make sense on any level."

Don't think for a minute that this is Canada's problem alone. Last April, a dog named Rocky, suffering and bleeding, was dropped off at a vet in Billings, Mont.

"It initially looked like somebody had surgically removed the testicles on that dog themselves," executive director of the Yellowstone Valley Animal, Chris Anderson, told TKVQ News. "As we started to do more surgery, we realized that we ... we found a rubber band ... and that maybe they had actually tried to band the testicles on an adult male dog. And the dog, literally, chewed its testicles off."

Both Billings and Saskatchewan, incidentally, offer low-cost spay/neuter services. 

"I wouldn't even call it neutering. It's torture. It's absolutely torture," Daphna Nachminovitch, senior vice president of PETA's Cruelty Investigations Department, told the Huffington Post. 

PETA is offering a $5,000 reward leading to the arrest and conviction of anyone who attempts home neutering. 

"I want people to understand that this is illegal," she said. "And to make sure there are no copycat cases."

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Let's Talk: Would You Try Zinc Neutering If It Meant Your Dog Could Keep His Man Bits?

I sometimes take zinc gluconate when I feel a cold coming on. And lots of people down the amino acid, L-Arginine, for all kinds of health concerns. But who knew that when you mix the two together, add a little purified water, and inject it into a dog's testicles, it effectively neuters the dog? (Don't try this at home, on beast or man!)

Welcome to the world of zinc neutering, or as it's sometimes called, zeutering. Many hope it will be a cheaper, safer, and more appealing (to some) alternative to the surgery male dogs currently need to guarantee they won't procreate. I don't know if it also takes away the urge to procreate, or if it eliminates the sometimes more aggressive/macho behavior intact male dogs can have, but it definitely seems to be highly effective at sterlization.

Measuring a dog's scrotum to calculate how much of the Neutersol will be needed to sterilize the dog. No worries; the dog is sedated.

Within a month of this injection, the dog can't be a daddy. He can go about his business with all his parts still attached. No one, with the exception of other keen-nosed dogs, will be the wiser.

Neutering by Neutersol injection (the commercial name for the zinc, amino acid, and water solution) recently received regulatory approval in the U.S. for dogs from 3 to 10 months, and will officially launch later this year. About 300 dogs have been zeutered here already. It's been approved in Mexico, Columbia, and Boliva for a while now.

There are plenty of benefits to this form of neutering: The injections are far less costly and time consuming than traditional surgical neutering, which is a huge boon for cash-strapped shelters. It also appears to be to safer, since the sterilizing surgery - even on male dogs - is invasive, and can have complications.

Some people prefer Neuticles to the neutered look In addition, it will probably also win over people who are hesitant to neuter their dogs because they think man dogs should look, well, manly. A while ago we did an article on fake testicle implants called Neuticles. There are still lots of people who want their dogs to go au naturel - sometimes for esthetics, sometimes because they don't want to alter their dog in any way. Neuticles are surprisingly popular in certain circles. I wonder if Neuticles people are concerned about the effect of Neutersol on their business?

As advantageous as the injections can be, I can see some people balking. After all, most of us are used to seeing male dogs with nothing hanging out down/back there. People are so accustomed to seeing neutered dogs that when the occasional dog bounces by with his bits still there, they can be downright grossed out by the sight. The dog may as well be wearing the testicles on his dewlap. "That's disgusting!" a friend whispered to me when an intact dog passed us by recently when we dined at an outdoor cafe.

And many people make assumptions when they see an intact male dog. They may think the owner wants him to be a cool, manly dog. They worry that the dog could be aggressive, or at least kind of jerky. They may scoot their still-young unspayed girl pups away as fast as possible. (There's no flag to tell the world "No Worries - This Dog Has Been Zeutered." Vets do put a little tattoo on the belly to ID the dog as sterile, but it's not exactly visible to passersby.)

At Dogster World HQ, we're really curious what our readers think about this. Would you have your dog get the injection? Or would you still want the full-on chop-chop? Or nothing at all? Do tell, and let us know why/why not! Let's talk! this is going to be fun!

Here's an interesting video about the procedure. If you don't like watching injections, especially injections into the nether regions, you might want to skip through part of it. The segment starting at about 4:30, with the veterinarian squeezing and touching the dog's privates in a park, is just a little oddball. I wonder if anyone passed him by while he was doing that (admittedly necessary) exam? I'd have picked up my pace and started whistling and looking skyward...

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