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Date Posted: 15:26:10 12/30/09 Wed
Author: Norman Epstein
Subject: Re: Spay/Neuter
In reply to: Sharon 's message, "Spay/Neuter" on 15:07:46 12/29/09 Tue

This, without permission, is from Laura Sanborn which may be of interest. In the past I have used Laura's posts without objection and I don't think she will mind this time. Norman

"Yesterday I made the rounds at the state capital to visit the offices of
the Assembly Business & Professions Committee members to discuss AB
1634. I was accompanied by two police officers who discussed the harmful
impacts AB 1634 would have on law enforcement. Also with us was the person
in charge of the breeding and training program at Canine Companions for
Independence (CCI), who discussed how AB 1634 would harm programs that
assist blind and disabled Californians. He also represented Assistance
Dogs International, Inc., an umbrella organization over many
guide/service/hearing dog organizations.

Similar to guide dog programs, CCI breeds and trains dogs to assist
disabled people. They use Golden Retrievers, Labrador Retrievers, and
Golden/Labrador mixes. CCI breeds over 600 dogs a year.

My jaw nearly hit the floor when the CCI representative started describing
research that CCI did in the early 1990s to understand spay/neuter
impacts. CCI wanted to know if early s/n (less than 6 months of age) would
yield results at least as good as their traditional spay/neuter age, which
is usually over 12 months of age (typical is 17 months of age). So CCI
did a controlled prospective research study... the gold standard of
research. They assigned half the pups in a number of litters to be s/n
early, while the remaining pups in these litters were s/n at their
traditional age. The results were very unexpected. The early age spayed
females were significantly more dog aggressive than the traditional age
spayed females. Urinary incontinence was a much bigger problem in the
early spayed females compared to the traditional age spayed females. The
early age neutered males were more fearful than the traditional age
neutered males. The bottom line is that the early age spay/neuter dogs had
a significantly higher failure rate in CCI's program... a smaller
percentage of them grew up to be working dogs. CCI will not spay/neuter
dogs before 6 months of age, and usually wait until dogs are more than 12
months old to spay/neuter. The CCI rep said this research has been
repeated by others. I believe one of them may be Guide Dogs for the Blind,
as I was told by one of their trainers that they recently stopped doing
early spay/neuter owing to results they were seeing that they don't like.

I spent 6 years poring over the veterinary medical research literature
trying without success to find research of this type, and here I was
sitting in the office of a state Assembly member, listening to a scientist
describe the work that his group did. It has not been published
anywhere. Needless to say, I spent the rest of the day bugging him to get
this published. This has implications far beyond AB 1634 and
guide/assistance dogs. It has implications for the health and well being
of most dogs. There are very few controlled prospective research studies
of dogs in veterinary medicine examining spay/neuter impacts. They are too
costly for almost all researchers to do. Guide & assistance dog programs
may be in a unique position to do these kind of studies, as they breed many
dogs and they maintain a degree of control over their dogs that is beyond
what other breeders can do.

CCI's work is summarized in their letter to the California state Assembly
opposing AB 1634. Quoting from CCI's letter:

Calling AB 1634 the 'California Healthy Pets Act' is a misnomer
Surgical sterilization of preadult dogs has been shown to increase the risk
for several significant behavioral and health problems. CCI did a study on
the effects of prepubertal gonadectomy (i.e., sterilization) in 1990, and
found significant increases in failure rates due to both medical and
behavioral reasons in those dogs that had been sterilized early. This
research has been repeated elsewhere with the same results. Increased
incidence of health problems such as urinary incontinence, osteosarcoma,
hemangiosarcoma, obesity and orthopedic problems as well as behavioral
problems such as environmental fear and interdog aggression are strong
arguments against prepubertal sterilization for any dog, but especially
those destined for a working role.
http://saveourdogs.net/documents/CCIPosition.jpg

Laura Sanborn"

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