People's views on women's rights can be reflected in dogs
Does spaying and neutering a dog really stop aggressive behavior?
I’ve never been a fan of the zoo. Although I didn’t become a vegetarian (and two-time failed vegan) for the past 20 years with the intention of fighting for animal rights, it became more than obvious that I was that kid who was unimpressed by zoos, aquariums and circuses. I just didn’t see the entertainment value in it and used to ask teachers and my parents why we were going on field trips to “Animal Jail” and “Fish Jail.” I would find every reason in the world to go to the cafeteria or hang out in the souvenir shop. I thought all three places were lame.
About the only memorable moment I had at a zoo was watching one monkey run up to another monkey. I thought they were playing at first until one was clearly trying to insert himself into the other. The female monkey waved him away and tried to leap to another tree. And that male monkey slapped her so hard that she fell out of the tree. He gracefully hopped down, then proceeded to pump the daylights out of her.
My classmates stood there in shock while the teacher tried to rush us along. A few boys giggled. The girls even let out some nervous giggles. Watching that chaos was the only time I was 50% OK with somebody yanking up a monkey and caging him elsewhere. But apparently that’s “nature” doing its thing.
The dog debate: To spay or neuter
I had a conversation recently with one of my neighbors, who has a dog that humps other dogs all the time. This dog is so aggressive with the humping that I’ve almost ran into a car and a pole trying to get his dog away from my dog. While the guy laughs nervously, he’s clearly not commanding his dog verbally to stop. He just holds on tight to the leash and struggles to get his dog to knock it off.
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He once told me he took his dog to the dog park, but his dog would not stop bothering another dog. That female dog got so tired of him and ran up the legs of her owner. And then his dog ran up the other owner’s legs to try to hump her while the female dog was being rescued. My neighbor laughed and said he was so embarrassed that he never went back.
Last year, approximately 172K dogs and 125K cats were euthanized, reports the Shelter Animals Count (SAC) database.
On multiple occasions, I’ve encouraged him to take his dog for professional training to teach him to sit, stay, leave it and the other popular commands. Those would go a long way with getting his dog to listen to him. He shrugged and said he’d rather just adopt a female dog so his own dog could get it “out of his system.” Before I could help myself, I said, “I feel sorry for that female dog. She’s going to be attacked all the time.” He laughed. I did not.
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He’s also complained a couple of times about how he wishes the adoption agency he got his dog from didn’t require neutering. He said he wanted to have more dogs. I looked at him curiously and reminded him that he could easily go back to that adoption agency to get more dogs. But in his mind, he wanted his own dog to be doing the mating.
Between his views on his dog humping, wanting to get a female dog for the sole purpose of “getting it out of his system” and being opposed to neutering, I felt like I was talking to a surprisingly friendly member of MAGA. Again, this is one of the coolest guys in my neighborhood and I talk to him often, but we do not see eye to eye on the topic of dog reproduction. And if you listen to MAGA talk about women, the dog neuter debate has a frightening parallel.