I know, wishful thinking that this is the face of the last dog who died from splenic cancer.
Truth is, splenic cancer is epidemic in the United States. They say they don’t know why, but they are lying to us.
It’s early spay/neuter. Yes, early spay/neuter is causing splenic cancer in our dogs. Maybe other cancers, I don’t know. But this one, certainly—it’s not the sole cause of this cancer, but a huge one nonetheless. Do your homework. The research is out there. Our shelter and rescue communities, our breeders, and the veterinary community are ignoring this.
They won’t if we keep after them.
Yes, cancer comes from other things as well. Environmental toxins, bad luck, you name it. Cancer also comes from not spaying or neutering, as do other medical crises that can kill or maim our beloveds. Cancer is also symbiotic, which means it is trying to live with us, but the genetic differences are just too great for that right now. I know, I’m an intuitive, I’ve talked with cancer, but that’s another subject, another article for this magazine.
What works for our dogs? What keeps them healthy, and why? How do we make sure they’re healthy? How do we find the professionals who will help us figure that out, without lying to us, without being ignorant of the risks and the options, without being set on their own agendas?
How do we make informed, loving choices for our animals?
When we spay or neuter our dogs before they have fully matured, we interrupt their hormonal development—we interfere with the chemical process that nature puts in play to help organic beings grow. We’re not smart enough to know what that does to them, or to any animal. We just spay or neuter because it’s politically correct, it’s convenient, and we’re not thinking it through.
We don’t neuter our teenagers. We help them grow up.
Why should we give less thought and attention to our dogs, our cats, or any animal?
Let’s figure this out together. Please.
I’d call this “Murphy’s War,” and I did at first. I was angry when I learned the truth about splenic cancer, angrier when I learned Murphy had it. She’s gone now, and while the anger still burns, it is not anger that will save other dogs from this cancer.
Only love will save our dogs. Discussion. Setting aside all the prejudices we have about what should happen with animals, and figuring out what will happen because we’re fully informed, we’ve fully discussed it, we’ve set new guidelines, and we’ve figured out what works for our own animals.
Let’s sit down and talk this through. Figure it out. Please.
No, Murphy’s face is not the last face of splenic cancer. But maybe it will be enough to mark the beginning of the end of splenic cancer that comes from ignorance.
Maybe we can also figure out other sad things that have arisen from prejudice and political motives. Things like the strange contempt for purebred dogs and the weird devotion to mixed-breed dogs. Or the truly odd role of the shelter and rescue communities and their political counterparts as the new puppy millers: why else would they advocate not going anywhere but to them to buy a dog?
Yes, we have a lot to discuss. Nothing to argue about.
Because we’ll start from love. From trying to understand what we were all told to think, what we will think, what we will do, and why.
We’ll love each other and our animals. Together.
That’s why I don’t call it “Murphy’s War.” I call it “Murphy’s Choice.”
Which choice will you make? Status quo, which is clearly killing our dogs? Or love, which will figure out how to save them?
© 2012 Robyn M Fritz
It’s such a complex topic isn’t it? Not spaying/neutering increases risks of some cancers, while spaying/neutering increases risks of others. Not to mention that the TIMING of neutering changes the risks too! It seems like cancer is so hard to avoid. The good news is that there are lots of other factors involved – genetics, as well as controllable things like environment and diet!
Thank you for your comment on my articles on spaying and neutering our dogs. I think Ted Kerasote has summed veterinary care up very well, including this issue, in his book, Pukka’s Promise. Interesting that I first learned about this from a breeder of golden retrievers in California; her dogs are living nearly twice as long as other goldens, partly she thinks because she insists that all her buyers keep them intact at least until they are sexually mature. I lost Murphy to hemangiosarcoma, which is much more common in spayed females. We were told we were doing the right thing, when the ‘right thing’ was politically motivated, and not based on fact. I hope more of us will continue to learn about the risks and continue to talk and write about it. I think one thing that would help is to actually look at the dogs in the shelter system: many of them are given up because of behavioral issues, and were not there because of ‘overpopulation caused by lack of responsibility.’ I think that there are certainly other causes of cancer; however, since we know that early spay/neuter is clearly a cause of certain cancers, I believe we should stop this process. Research shows only a slight risk of certain cancers after about 30 months. I know UC Davis is going to tubal ligation and vasectomy, which also have problems. I think we are in a period of trial and error, and sitting down and discussing research, problem-solving, and how we protect our animals is something that needs to be done. Now. Thank you for commenting. Robyn