In humans, we don’t usually castrate them because it throws their hormones out of whack, and causes all kinds of issues, but wouldn’t that also be the case for some animals, since their hormones systems are fairly similar?
Why is it that that we remove the testicles entirely, rather than giving them vasectomies like we do for humans?
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In humans, we don’t usually castrate them because it throws their hormones out of whack
I think you’re right, it also causes hormonal changes in animals. It’s just that usually we see those hormonal changes as beneficial behavior changes, like lower aggression. So in part we do it on animals to affect their hormones deliberately. For instance castrated cats usually have a lower tendency to pee in the places they shouldn’t.
There’s times in human history that it was done to humans for the same reasons. Eunuchs were just castrated human servants. Some were even done just to keep their voices from dropping so they’d sing in a “castrato”
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Did you know that historically eunuchs were invaluable as administrators and officials? Several sources say this was because it meant that those offices were a lot less likely to be hereditary, and therefore the power to appoint administrators and officials remained with the state!
WOW! That IS a fun fact!
For another helping: this is also why they were used in at least one culture I know of as servants to the Queen or the King’s consorts. Didn’t have to check paternity if you castrate every other man they ever see.
Just reading about it makes me feel… uncomfortable.
If you really want to read about it check out this novel
The fall of the Han Dynasty in China came about because a group of eunuchs were the de facto rulers of the empire and warlords wanted to restore said power to the emperor, culminating in the Three Kingdoms period. Eunuchs were always kept around in Asian courts because it was believed they wouldn’t have a drive for power, since they couldn’t have children in order to start their own dynasties.
well, sounds like those eunuchs sure proved them wrong about the power hungry thing.
I’m convinced Michael Jackson’s father did this to him
They probably would be mire likely to chemically castrate these days like they sometimes do to rapists.
A eunuch’s life is hard- and nothing else.
At least in people, though, doing that can also cause problems like bone density loss, which seems like it might cause more health issues than it would otehrwise help.
That’s the case in doing it too early in animals as well, especially noticable in larger breeds. There’s been a longtime pushback for dogs to get spayed / neutered at later ages, than one size fits all.
Also there are other interesting studies that differ between humans and animals, such as the lifespan of animals that are neutered / spayed tends to be longer than the other way around, and supposedly in humans it’s the opposite.
I didn’t do a ton of vetting when I was researching the information though, so I don’t know how well the studies were controlled and what they accounted for.
Edit: Also some vets do offer vasectomies as an alternative to neutering, but it is usually far more expensive.
spayed/neutered humans do live longer than their intact counterparts. There was a paper on Thai men who were castrated to serve as royal guards. IIRC, they lived 17 years more than average.
I can’t speak for all other animals, but I imagine it’s often for similar reasons as why they do it for cats: removing the hormones means they’re much less likely to display unwanted behaviors such as marking/spraying, territorial aggression (fighting) towards other cats, and roaming. Those behaviors all stem from the desire to mate, and if they don’t have testosterone from the testicles, they don’t experience the desire to mate. Unless you don’t mind the smell of concentrated cat urine everywhere, adult male cats with testicles don’t make very great house pets.
With female cats, they completely remove the ovaries (rather than doing a tubal ligation) for similar reasons. If they did a tubal ligation instead, the cat would still go into heat, meaning lots of yowling and trying to escape, and an increased risk of marking/spraying, just no longer able to get pregnant. In my region, they also usually remove the uterus, but it appears that varies globally.
its crazy that its possible to mod a cat
just need a good installer
It’s possible to mod humans too. Have you ever had a haircut, got a tattoo, taken any medication?
Because you want that hormonal changes in your pets.
Yeah, you don’t want male cats spraying everywhere, or dogs going into heat.
And your dog humping everything that moves
I know plenty of neutered dogs that still do that.
It’s a hardwired dominance thing. Once had a buddy come over and our one male terrier mix dog who had never jumped anything before grabbed a stuffed animal that belonged to a relatives kid, dragged it over and went to town on it in front of us. It was funny and weird.
Even female dogs can sometimes show the behavior to assert dominance.
Dogs are weird.
Your knowledge of neutered dogs who do not follow the desired behavior pattern is really cool! I have some knowledge about neutered dogs who did experience the expected and desired changes in behavior. Cool!
Often the hormonal shit is desired. Castrated animals are more docile.
Sometimes the hormones from testes change the meat flavor so they just castrate them for monetary reasons. Boar taint is what it’s called in pigs.
Boar Taint would be an excellent metal band name.
I was filling out some registration for my new dog and under “neutered,” there were three options, including castration, vasectomy, and one other that I forget. Maybe it is a thing?
efficiency. i bet its 10 times quicker to lop them off than surgically tie the tubes
Idk how it would be for other animals, but for me it barely lasted 10 minutes (local anesthesia included).
Yea but human ball sacks (and dicks) are quite disproportionate to body size compared to nearly every species and bigger things are generally easier to work with
I mean, the process of a vasectomy is basically cutting the vas deferens in the testes. It’s arguably less complicated than removing them completely, since you have a smaller wound, and less bleeding because you’re not severing very many blood vessels in the process. If nothing else, recovery should be faster.
You’re still cutting into tissue, introducing a potential infection vector, and then need to delicately cut and clamp small vessels before stitching it back up vs stretching a rubber band with a special tool and then waiting a while. The skill level involved isn’t anywhere near the same.
Wouldn’t doing that just provide a massively increased risk of necrosis/infection, since you’ve now got dead tissue just hanging about?
At least for small animals, they usually go the surgical route with surgical removal of the gonads, rather than using a rubber band.
I know they use the rubber band method for large animals, although that could easily be due to risks associated with anaesthesia/surgery than anything else, since it’s a lot harder to operate on something like a horse compared to a cat.
For a cat that you are personally paying to have neutered, they will do anything you want. There are options to just surgically sterilize and leave everything intact. But that’s not only much more expensive, it also leaves their behavior the same which isn’t always desirable. Unless you enjoy a male spraying all over your house, that is.
But for a farmer that has to sterilize a herd, they aren’t spending the time and money on a vet to come and surgically neuter every animal they have. A rubber band is cheap and can be done by the farmer, and a vet only has to be called if an infection happens. It’s been done for centuries. No one is going to spend 50 times the amount of money if they don’t have to.
I always though they lob them off, but in reality the inside of the testicles is taken out and the skin “bags” remain andbin time the skin just evens out down there.
At least that’s how our vet did it.
Yes, the testicles are removed and they don’t cut material off the ballsack.
I think you meant lop, not lob. At least I hope vets aren’t yeeting pet testicles.
I mean… I don’t know what they do with the testicles after loping them off!
Hasn’t been a good castrati in Opera for fucking years smh
You raise an interesting point with regard to TNE males in feral cat communities. Normally we like the fact that neutered males don’t spend all their time fighting and fucking and marking their territory. But if you had a vasectomied male or six around, you might get fewer of the fertile females impregnated by the fertile males you haven’t caught. Like when we release sterile male mosquitoes. It would be more difficult and expensive but maybe more effective in reducing the population.
How would it reduce the population? Cats mate with multiple partners and are one of the few species that can have a litter with kittens from multiple fathers. It seems like they would continue to mate with other cats and get pregnant anyway.
https://www.catster.com/guides/can-a-litter-of-kittens-have-different-fathers/
Yeah, probably true. It would take a critical mass of sterile males to make a real difference. But neutered males aren’t trying at all, so females in heat are only mating with fertile males now. If a percentage of the fucks were not going to produce kittens, they might have smaller litters at least. Also if the sterile males were successful at fighting off fertile rivals. Again, neutered males aren’t trying.
That sounds like a really good idea.
Until you ask someone with basic knowledge of feline physiology.
…Cats are intentionally promiscuous and can have litters from multiple fathers. It won’t change a thing. Unless you sterilize almost all male cats. Before that it doesn’t change much - and as vasectomies are far more cost intensive you can actually sterilize less of them. So more fertile male cats will stay in the population.
Besides it is actually kind of cruel as a significant portion of non-castrated feral male cats get injured during these fights - so it adds an unnecessary layer of suffering as well.
And of course it makes the males basically unadoptable when they are not castrated and end up in a shelter- males are really really unpleasant pets unless castrated. Better do it right - or even better make sure that people don’t let their pet cats don’t go feral at all. Because even a castrated feral house cat does wrack havoc on the ecosystem.
Seems, but you’d have to experiment to see if it actually worked. Cats are nothing if not out-of-the-box ninjas.
Relate question, why don’t animal get tons of health issue like osteoporosis ? Or the get it but no one cares as they’llbe slaughtered for Meat.
I know that dogs get health issues like osteoporosis, as well as many other ailments that humans are suffering from. However, most animals have shorter lifespans than humans and are unable to articulate that they are suffering (or even hiding it - a common survival instinct), which means it’s far less likely that illnesses are discovered.
This is why they say you should wait a year or so before fixing dogs
They do, but don’t live as long as humans. So it doesn’t progress as far.
We are worse to animals because compassion doesn’t sell.
