Latest / Sometimes There's Side Eye / STSE #82: Mandatory Spay & Neuter
Transcript
- 0:12Welcome to Sometimes There's Side Eye, a podcast about two
- 0:16friends having real and unfiltered conversations about
- 0:19dogs and people listen as we talk about our lives with dogs,
- 0:23training, behavior, share some laughs and a whole lot of
- 0:27banter. I'm Heather.
- 0:30And I'm Christy, what are we talking about this week,
- 0:32Heather? This week Christy is very
- 0:35excited because we are going we are going to have a little on
- 0:41the on the fly discussion about mandatory spay and neuter.
- 0:46Pros cons Heather's big feelings.
- 0:50Christy's. I mean, of course I have
- 0:53feelings about this, but I, I'm just going to say part of the
- 0:58reason that this came up. I think it's a top, a good topic
- 1:02for us to talk about. But if you are involved in the
- 1:06rescue community, you are probably seeing some things that
- 1:10are really difficult coming across your feed right now about
- 1:13Miranda's rescue sanctuary, whatever you want to call it in
- 1:17California, which is incredibly sad and incredibly difficult.
- 1:22If you worry about keeping your heart safe and do not know about
- 1:27it, please don't go and read about it.
- 1:29But essentially it was a quote UN quote sanctuary that turns
- 1:33out was very similar to a spindle top scenario.
- 1:37And there are a lot of missing dogs.
- 1:40Yeah, it's basically a House of horrors.
- 1:42Yeah, yeah. And so a lot of times when cases
- 1:47like this happen, mandatory spay and neuter, it comes to the
- 1:52forefront and people start screaming for it.
- 1:56And I always find it interesting to read what people are saying.
- 2:02And one of the pages that I follow and really resonate with
- 2:08is Bad Rap in California. And sure enough, people started
- 2:13yelling about mandatory spay and neuter and bad rap had done a
- 2:16post about it. And it just got me thinking.
- 2:19And it's something that Christy and I have never talked about on
- 2:24the podcast. And I thought, hey, let's have a
- 2:27discussion on the fly and just sort of like see if we can
- 2:31debate this out a little bit because.
- 2:34And what did I say? I said no.
- 2:36Christy said no. And here.
- 2:39We are. Because you know what, Christy?
- 2:41You've gotten a lot of softball topics lately, and so here we
- 2:46go. I know.
- 2:49Tell me how you feel, Heather. And here's the thing, actually,
- 2:53before we even really get into the heart of it, I will say I
- 2:58understand why people believe that spay and neuter, mandatory
- 3:03spay and neuter is necessary or, or they want it.
- 3:08I understand surface level, but like everything, there's so many
- 3:12nuances to to this discussion. And so I don't want you to
- 3:19think, oh, if you're pro mandatory spay and neuter, we're
- 3:23gonna like bash you or, or anything like that, but we are
- 3:26gonna have a real conversation about where we're both at today.
- 3:30And and we would just. Ask that you listen.
- 3:33Yeah. And that those where we're at
- 3:36today comes from our history in sheltering, in rescue, in
- 3:41fostering and buying for Heather ethically bred dogs.
- 3:46Now being in the sports world and having both rescue and
- 3:49ethically bred dogs and and some not so ethically bred dogs in
- 3:54that mix and seeing kind of all of that, I do think we have kind
- 3:58of a unique perspective. It also for me comes from a
- 4:01place of believing what's the most healthy for our dogs and,
- 4:06and, and what that looks like, right.
- 4:09I OK, so one very basic or a couple basic takeaways that I
- 4:17got because I read all of the comments and sort of went down a
- 4:22little bit of a rabbit hole, a social media rabbit hole.
- 4:26I know imagine it. A couple things that I thought
- 4:29were really, really interesting were were first and foremost
- 4:34people saying it is impossible, direct quote word impossible to
- 4:41keep an intact dog from procreating.
- 4:47Oh, I didn't realize that was a belief.
- 4:49There are a lot of people who believe that and I'm just going
- 4:53to say that I have had a combined the experience of
- 4:59living with intact animals a total of, let's see, 7 + 613
- 5:07fifteen years. So three different dogs, a total
- 5:10of 15 years. And I have never had an
- 5:12accidental pregnancy with any of my animals, nor have any of my
- 5:17animals gotten any other dogs accidentally pregnant.
- 5:20So I do believe it is possible for people to keep intact
- 5:27animals and keep them from procreating.
- 5:30Do I also think that that means that accidents never happen?
- 5:35No, I think that we are humans and in every single way, when it
- 5:39comes to being human, we make mistakes.
- 5:42So I'm not saying that everyone's perfect, and I'm not
- 5:45even saying that I'm perfect. If I went another 30 years that
- 5:48I would never have it happen. But if people are actively
- 5:52trying to keep intact animals responsibly, then generally if
- 5:57they have a whoopsie, then they are also dealing with that in a
- 6:00responsible way. So that I thought was a very
- 6:05interesting comment. The other thing that I thought
- 6:07was really interesting was the belief that if we make mandatory
- 6:14spay and neuter a law, that everyone will automatically
- 6:18start following it. And that there are even enough
- 6:22resources, free or otherwise, meaning veterinarians, clinics,
- 6:28to enforce and make that happen and do all of the surgeries for
- 6:33the millions of dogs who live in the US.
- 6:36And then on top of it, if people don't do it, that there is
- 6:40actually infrastructure to enforce that.
- 6:44That really made me just sit back for a moment because that
- 6:49just tells me that people are making an impassioned argument,
- 6:54but not critically thinking through the whole process or
- 6:57understanding the process. Thoughts, Christy?
- 7:03Nope, you're doing Christy. Christy's like this is not my
- 7:08topic, no. Actually, what I was thinking is
- 7:13often laws are put in the books and there isn't an
- 7:15infrastructure. They don't know if we can say,
- 7:18oh, just because there's not an infrastructure, there shouldn't
- 7:21be rules regarding something. However, and I'm not pro spay
- 7:27and neuter, mandatory spay and neuter, but I also don't love
- 7:31the argument. Well, we don't have the
- 7:32infrastructure, so we can't make laws around it because we could
- 7:36do that around everything. And some things that we really
- 7:40do want to have laws around like we, we can't.
- 7:43Well, I'm not, I'm not even going there.
- 7:45There's just a lot of areas we can do that with.
- 7:48Fair enough. I think where I struggle with it
- 7:51too is like, is that OK? You put mandatory spay and
- 7:55neuter in on the books. The people who actually need to
- 8:01follow it don't care. Now we have mandatory
- 8:06registration and mandatory vaccinations.
- 8:11Yeah. And guess what?
- 8:13Working in the shelter, volunteering in the shelter.
- 8:17Do you know how many dogs came in without registration?
- 8:19Like, all of them. Very rarely were we like, oh
- 8:23look, this dog has its collar and its tags and its
- 8:27registration and we just return it right back home.
- 8:29And it's proof of rabies. All ready to go?
- 8:32All the things you know, even responsible dog owners sometimes
- 8:37get late on their, their rabies or their, you know, or sending
- 8:42them registration or whatever. Yeah, yeah.
- 8:45I I also kind of sit with the whole argument of which I know
- 8:51this is an extrapolation and sort of going against what I was
- 8:55just saying, But if we actually successfully employed mandatory
- 8:59spay and neuter and people followed it, then we would have
- 9:01no dogs. Right.
- 9:03Yeah. And so I would, since I have not
- 9:05gone down the rabbit hole, what are people suggesting?
- 9:09Are they suggesting literally every dog be spaying neutered
- 9:12and then nothing is left? But I don't, I don't think
- 9:15people think that far. They're just like, this is what
- 9:18it is. All of these dogs died a
- 9:21horrible, horrific death. And if they would have, if
- 9:24mandatory spay and neuter was happening, then they wouldn't
- 9:28have they that wouldn't have happened to them.
- 9:30And I for me, I really struggle with the connection.
- 9:33I struggle with what happened with Miranda's rescue and the
- 9:38heinous things that happened to those dogs and the connection to
- 9:42how mandatory spay and neuter would actually have solved that.
- 9:46I struggle. But it's interesting to me that
- 9:51there were multiple posts that that's where it was going.
- 9:56The connection is a tough thing for me.
- 9:58I just brought up the mandatory spay and neuter for us to talk
- 10:02about because it came about from these whole this whole whole
- 10:06situation. Is the thought that if there was
- 10:10mandatory spay and neuter, those dogs wouldn't have existed to be
- 10:14in this horrible abuse of people?
- 10:19Maybe. But like, we don't have the
- 10:21luxury of going back in time. So like right?
- 10:24Right, so they would have existed anyway.
- 10:26So, yeah, and. So it just doesn't sort of
- 10:30compute for me, but. Yeah.
- 10:33So, so there's like no, when we talk about mandatory spay and
- 10:37neuter, they're saying no exceptions.
- 10:40Right. Well, I think that you have a
- 10:42scale of what what people are saying.
- 10:44You know, they're reasonable, how reasonable they are.
- 10:47But most people, when I read on these particular posts, a lot of
- 10:53them are saying no, no one should be breeding.
- 10:56I think that's really what it comes out to.
- 10:58No one should be breeding. Dogs should not be able to
- 11:01reproduce. So then they really are putting
- 11:04their hope in, in people not following the law.
- 11:08So people who don't follow the law of mandatory spay and neuter
- 11:13having oops litters and then that supplying dogs because no,
- 11:19because nobody is wanting to be without dogs.
- 11:22Nobody is like we should just get rid of dogs, period.
- 11:28All dogs. Everywhere.
- 11:29But also I kind of feel like it's like they see the Today
- 11:33problem and worrying about how we would have dogs in the future
- 11:37is a tomorrow problem. the Today problem is that there's like an
- 11:41extreme overpopulation problem and like dogs have nowhere to go
- 11:44and they're suffering and blah, blah, blah.
- 11:46Where I actually. Think things are?
- 11:48True, They are all true. But I actually think that an
- 11:51even bigger today problem is that people don't have the
- 11:55resources that they need or the education that they need.
- 11:58Yeah. And so if I guess in my mind,
- 12:03I'm like, if someone is not educated and doesn't have
- 12:06resources having them for be forced to spay their dog and
- 12:14they don't have a car to even get their dog to a clinic or
- 12:17don't even have a way to pay for their dog's food.
- 12:22Or you know what, like, like there's so many pieces that go
- 12:26into that, that I, I just feel like the real route to go is
- 12:31education and, and then offering resources for people to be able
- 12:37to keep their dogs versus ever having to send them to the
- 12:41shelter in the 1st place. And then they never end up in a
- 12:43place like Miranda's. I mean, if you want to get like
- 12:48big picture, which we're not doing today, obviously you can
- 12:51extrapolate that to how do we also hold accountable shelters
- 12:55and rescues and breeders, everybody not, this is not a
- 12:58shelter rescue problem. This is an everybody problem to
- 13:01hold accountable to do better by dogs, right?
- 13:05And report proper laws, blah blah blah.
- 13:08Like I get all of that, but for for the sake of this discussion,
- 13:12I would rather see resources go into education and helping
- 13:16people keep their dogs in their home, which also goes along with
- 13:19educating them. Hey, maybe we want to think
- 13:21about spaying and neutering because you know.
- 13:26Yeah, I do think that's a big problem for people too, is the
- 13:33fact that spay and neuter is so expensive on your own.
- 13:37I mean I always get my dog pre. Spayed or neutered because.
- 13:42I go through rescue so it's very convenient for me and I know my
- 13:46neighbor who found a puppy that was abandoned.
- 13:49She ended up in taking it and she had to find a discount place
- 13:53because she was like Chrissy. It's going to be like 500 / 500
- 13:56dollars. Trin.
- 13:58Trin was just under 500 I want to say.
- 14:01Yeah, yeah. And she's a bit bigger than
- 14:04Trenton already at four or five months.
- 14:06So she's a big puppy. And I'm thinking that she did
- 14:12the right thing. She wanted to do the right thing
- 14:13by this puppy. She brought it into her home.
- 14:16She loves it, she cares for it. But man, that's a big burden to
- 14:19put on people and say like, hey, that you have to pay this large
- 14:24fee. And also on the other side, I
- 14:28100% I believe that should be paid.
- 14:31They're doing a surgery. So there's two sides of the coin
- 14:35there that I do believe our medical professionals in the
- 14:39veterinary field should deserve to be paid, but also that that
- 14:44payment is a burden on a lot of people trying to do the right
- 14:48thing. And so it it kind of goes both
- 14:51ways like and I don't know how you would mandate that.
- 14:56Yeah. A little side note to that, that
- 14:59I think is really cool that I saw today is that California
- 15:03just signed into a law that California veterinarians can
- 15:08donate up to 4 hours towards free spay and neuter clinics
- 15:13towards their continuing education requirements for their
- 15:16state licensing. So I actually saw that and was
- 15:19like, oh, I think that's really a cool and creative way to loop
- 15:24everybody in on a little bit of responsibility to that.
- 15:27But also so worth their while, you know, and I that kind of
- 15:33goes along with what you're saying too, like, Oh, that's a
- 15:35really cool and creative way in my mind where that's get
- 15:39continuing that they have to do regardless if they want to stay
- 15:42licensed, they have to it's a way for them to also give back.
- 15:46You know, they can do it in their local community.
- 15:48And so I thought that that was really cool kind of going a
- 15:52little side note on, on the spay and neuter thing, but I agree,
- 15:56it is expensive. And that's no shade on why it's
- 15:59expensive. I get it.
- 16:01I am lucky enough that I am in a 2 income household.
- 16:06And that and, and keep in mind, Trin spay came up as a surprise.
- 16:12We were not prepared for that, right, because we went through
- 16:15behavioral issues with her. So I made a split second
- 16:19decision to say, shit, I'm, I'm going to spay her right now.
- 16:23And so I literally made that appointment on a Saturday for
- 16:27her to be spayed on on Monday. And I feel very fortunate that
- 16:31that was OK for us, right? But that's not the reality for a
- 16:35lot of people. And that sucks.
- 16:38And there's also a lot of education in that goes along
- 16:42with all of it, too, for people to understand.
- 16:45I just had a conversation with someone who works in veterinary
- 16:49medicine and someone came in and had their personal dog, had a
- 16:56litter of puppies. And there was one that was not
- 16:58thriving. And they were having a open,
- 17:02very open, educating conversation.
- 17:04And the woman said, well, you know, I was told, always told
- 17:08that a female dog, it's healthier for them to have one
- 17:11litter. No, stop spreading that these.
- 17:15Things are still there, right? And so and she got an education
- 17:21and was told that's an old wives tale that is not accurate.
- 17:24Don't know. Stop saying that right.
- 17:27So there's there's all these elements of education that go in
- 17:31as well. And thankfully that woman was
- 17:34open to being educated and she said this was a ton of work.
- 17:37I don't ever want to do this again.
- 17:39I am spaying her. Yeah, because if every female
- 17:42dog needed to have a litter of puppies to be held.
- 17:45Have mercy you. Guys like that's a lot of
- 17:48puppies are not needed or wanted.
- 17:53Yeah, and I do. Remember when I got Lucy that
- 17:56she like had clearly had a litter of puppies before and she
- 18:00was pregnant and then they spayed her and found out she was
- 18:03pregnant? Martian did her her pregnancy.
- 18:06But somebody told me. I remember someone told me.
- 18:09Well, I'm glad she had a chance to be a mother before they
- 18:12spayed her. And I'm like, why?
- 18:15Like why? I don't know who.
- 18:18What's that about? Yeah.
- 18:20So those those wife's tales. They're still here.
- 18:24Loud. And proud they're still here.
- 18:26Yeah. Yeah.
- 18:27I think for, I mean, I don't think anyone's surprised to hear
- 18:31that I am against mandatory spay and neuter.
- 18:34I obviously want to be able to make my own educated choices for
- 18:39my personal dogs. I pay to feed them and pay to
- 18:43house them and all of the things that go along with that.
- 18:46And I would like to make the choices for their bodies, but a
- 18:50piece of it too. For me, I actually do things
- 18:55with my dogs and I want them to be fully mature and fully
- 18:59developed. And I want to make a choice
- 19:02based on their breed and their structure.
- 19:06When that is. And I don't want an arbitrary
- 19:10law to tell me, oh, I don't care how big or small your dog is at
- 19:15six months they will be spayed or neutered, you know, or
- 19:18whatever that might be. So I take issue from a health
- 19:21standpoint big time because I want my dogs to have the benefit
- 19:27of being fully developed, if that is at all possible.
- 19:31That, you know, obviously if I'm in the dictator, we adopted him
- 19:35at 15 months. He was already neutered.
- 19:38That's totally fine that I have no issue with that.
- 19:42We're not saying that animals from rescue should not come
- 19:45being neutered. I I will die on that like you
- 19:49should. I think there's opportunities
- 19:51where it can be done responsibly, but Christy and I
- 19:53are not going to fight about that right now.
- 19:56We're not going down that fucking Rd.
- 19:58I I don't agree with you, but we're not going to fight about
- 20:01that right now. Off you go.
- 20:04It's bullshit though, how come fucking Europe and everyone
- 20:07else, they have intact dogs and they're totally fine and we're
- 20:10not fucking responsible enough to do it.
- 20:12I know, but some people are. I adopted cash and he was intact
- 20:16and I never fucking reproduced him.
- 20:19From an irresponsible rescue. Fair, but who didn't?
- 20:24Know you were. Responsible enough to hire him.
- 20:26There are rescues out there that are doing spay and neuter
- 20:29contracts and they're doing it successfully.
- 20:32OK. Yeah, that's true, and I do
- 20:34agree with. That obviously if I'm, if I'm
- 20:37adopting a dog, I am expecting that they will be spayed or
- 20:43neutered before I am adopting them.
- 20:45That is, that is most likely what is going to happen and that
- 20:52is, I mean, all of my girls were spayed before we got them.
- 20:56So but I'm talking about dogs that I'm going and purchasing
- 20:59somewhere. The the spay and neuter rescue
- 21:03shelter conversation is a whole nother day that Christy doesn't
- 21:06want to have ever come. So that's fine.
- 21:08But I also just really feel very strongly as well that my dogs
- 21:16are my dogs. And I don't think that somebody
- 21:20should be able to tell me what to do with them.
- 21:22But then I say on the flip side of that, well, rabies is a
- 21:26public health issue. Is, is overpopulation a public
- 21:30health issue? Like I'm literally devil's
- 21:33advocating myself. Yeah, yeah.
- 21:36I don't I don't know if the. That's probably bad wording,
- 21:39but. It's yeah, it's a hard.
- 21:42That's a hard because your kids are your kids, but the
- 21:45government tells you you can't them, you can't approve them.
- 21:49Like, yes, like, that's great. Let's keep that law.
- 21:53Yeah. Like, you know.
- 21:56Yes, yes, yeah, I think it was very, it's very interesting
- 22:01because I brought this whole thing up to a vet and her and I
- 22:07were having a very interesting conversation.
- 22:09She is pro breed, responsible, ethical breeding.
- 22:14And so I was asking, hey, do you, we were sort of saying if,
- 22:23if there was some sort of licensing, some sort of way to
- 22:29track who's breeding and, and what are they breeding?
- 22:34I, it's such a slippery slope to put more regulations and more
- 22:38laws on the books. I know, I know.
- 22:40But we were having like this hypothetical conversation
- 22:44because of this whole thing. And we were like, OK, is there a
- 22:48world where if you are our responsible ethical breeder, you
- 22:54are required to get a kennel license, just a kennel license
- 23:00and say this is who, this is what I'm doing, this is what I'm
- 23:03breeding. And you were then required to
- 23:10keep microchip records of everything that you were
- 23:12reproduce, required to microchip everything you reproduce,
- 23:16required to put yourself and the owner of said animals that you
- 23:20produce. And then the flip side of that,
- 23:24whatever however that all played out, say that you are a person
- 23:30who does not have a kennel license and is quote UN quote
- 23:33backyard breeding comes into a vet clinic and the vet says what
- 23:39is your kennel license number? And then if you do not have
- 23:43that, you are fined significantly and, and a first
- 23:49offense situation. And then the flip side of that,
- 23:55if you are a buyer of a puppy and you come in and the, let's
- 24:01just say it, the puppy has parvo and you're like, oh, I bought
- 24:05this puppy off Craigslist. And the vet says, do you have
- 24:09the kennel license number? Then you as a buyer can also be
- 24:13fined if you don't have that information.
- 24:16So it puts onus on both sides. And I asked, I said, would you
- 24:20as a vet want to have that responsibility?
- 24:24Would you feel comfortable? And she was like absolutely
- 24:26100%. OK so I disagree with you
- 24:30because I 100% believe that pushes people like when they're
- 24:34having an emergency to not go to their trusted vet.
- 24:38I said that too. Because they're going to get
- 24:41fined, they're going to, they don't, they don't trust the vet
- 24:45not to report them. They all the things I think it
- 24:50is not in the best interest of the docs.
- 24:52Also think when we talk about having a kennel license, our
- 24:59massive breeding production like puppy mills.
- 25:02Yeah, most of them have licenses from the government.
- 25:07And that's an. Enforcement problem maintained.
- 25:09It's. Not it's an enforcement problem,
- 25:11Yep. Right.
- 25:13So I don't trust that the government is responsibly giving
- 25:17out licenses. So then I believe that we're
- 25:20still in the, there's no enforcement now we're pushing
- 25:24people away from going to their vet when they really need to get
- 25:27to their vet. And we haven't solved any of the
- 25:31problems. We've just put another layer of
- 25:34laws that can't be enforced. So I brought up the barrier to
- 25:39like taking their animals to the vet situation as well.
- 25:43And the pushback was most of the people that they, they already
- 25:48have barriers to not go to the vet anyway.
- 25:51Like you're you're not. They're already not doing what
- 25:55they need to be doing. So then if, if there's already a
- 25:58barrier and they're not going to bring their dog in anyway, why
- 26:02would we put another restriction on them?
- 26:05Because you're saying don't worry, that's not going to be a
- 26:11problem because they're not going to bring their dog to the
- 26:14vet. But.
- 26:15But you said in the beginning, we we can't be afraid to put
- 26:19laws just because, right? No, there's no enforcement and
- 26:25whatever. Right.
- 26:28But you're saying like we should put a law on them that could
- 26:32potentially create barriers, but because they already have
- 26:35barriers, it's not going to put barriers on them.
- 26:38Do you see? Like, so I said the exact same
- 26:40thing. I was like, wasn't that going to
- 26:42stop people from them being afraid of taking their animals
- 26:45to the vet? And she was like, but they're
- 26:49not giving proper care. Regardless if there's a law or
- 26:53not, they're they're not doing what they're supposed to do.
- 26:57So we can't be afraid to try to stop them from for future
- 27:01litters, future dogs, future everything out of fear that the.
- 27:07Point of hoping and putting the lawn there for them if it's not
- 27:12going to make any difference anyway.
- 27:14Well, no, because it's about the people who do care and come in
- 27:19and bring their dogs for care that the potential for being
- 27:23fined will make them like it's not worth it to them to breed
- 27:26anymore. It's not worth.
- 27:28It because they. Can get in trouble and have to
- 27:31pay and like what they have to pay isn't worth what they make
- 27:36like it just makes it harder. It's another barrier to so that
- 27:40people are annoyed about going through the process of breeding
- 27:46and and having more puppies like it's just annoying.
- 27:50What's your? Idea.
- 27:52Do you have any open idea? No ideas, No, because.
- 27:58Honestly, my idea is realistically there has to be
- 28:04more programs that are accessible to people who need
- 28:08them and are willing to take advantage of them.
- 28:11And even in maybe areas that well, let me back up.
- 28:17So I think a lot of programs there's there are a lot of
- 28:20programs, but a lot of them are only for pit bulls or Chihuahuas
- 28:24or they're only in really poor areas, economically challenged
- 28:31areas. But I think we're probably
- 28:37there's a need for those in other areas as well.
- 28:41I know I have a family member who lives in a nice community.
- 28:46However, she does not have a lot of money, hardly any money and
- 28:53for her to spay or spay or neuter her animal is really it
- 28:59wasn't really financially difficult.
- 29:02When I looked for programs for her, they were She's also
- 29:07elderly so it's it's going to be she can't drive.
- 29:11Far. Yeah.
- 29:13And it was going to be, you know, an hour drive to any
- 29:16clinic that would provide a reduced fee or a free spay or
- 29:21neuter. And I didn't feel comfortable
- 29:24for a variety of reasons, taking her dog from her to do this for
- 29:28her. So then I'm like, man, there's
- 29:31no, there's no resources her and out her way because that's
- 29:36considered not an economically challenged area, even though I I
- 29:43think there's a lot of households, especially right
- 29:45now, there's a lot of households who are economically challenged.
- 29:50Yeah. In areas that maybe you.
- 29:53Wouldn't expect. You wouldn't expect, Yeah.
- 29:55And for your family member, if mandatory spay and neuter were
- 30:00on the books, it would be extremely challenging for them
- 30:04to figure out how to get that done and would then be in breach
- 30:09of the law, you know, which is really difficult on many levels.
- 30:15We go back to what if her dog gets sick and needs to go to the
- 30:20vet? Well now she's like what now?
- 30:21I can't because she would need to be spayed or neutered and I
- 30:25could be fined or I could get in trouble or they could take my
- 30:28dog for not having this. But now my dog's sick and guess
- 30:32what? This dog is not going to get
- 30:34pregnant because this dog does not leave her.
- 30:39It's a bit of goraphobic at this point, like so you know, and she
- 30:46did get the dog spayed, but it was, it was a hardship.
- 30:49Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think it's really hard.
- 30:52I completely. Can I just say one other thing?
- 30:56Yes, I know the devil's advocate is going to say maybe your
- 30:59family member shouldn't have a dog then.
- 31:02And maybe you're right. I mean, I made the same argument
- 31:06when she got a dog. However, as a single person,
- 31:11she, the amount of comfort that dog brings her is immense.
- 31:18And I don't, I don't think it's fair for us to make us blanket
- 31:22statement that says like, if you, if you don't have, if
- 31:27you're not financially secure, you don't get to have a pet, You
- 31:30don't get to have that comfort or love in your life.
- 31:33And I it's a sensitive topic 'cause I do see both sides, but
- 31:37I just, I know that somebody out there is thinking, well maybe
- 31:41she just shouldn't have it then. But there's more to it than just
- 31:45rich people get dogs and poor people don't. 100% totally agree
- 31:50and I agree with you that there are plenty of people out there
- 31:55that their animals are the only thing they have and it's keeping
- 32:00them alive. So I'm with you.
- 32:03I also think obviously not just anyone wants to have an intact
- 32:09animal. It I liken it to not just
- 32:13everyone should have a Rottweiler.
- 32:16Like I really think that the average person is not signing up
- 32:23to deal with a bitching season every six to nine months.
- 32:28It's a pain in the ass. It really sucks.
- 32:31I so when I say that I am against mandatory spay and
- 32:36neuter, that doesn't mean that I think that there should just be
- 32:39intact animals running around everywhere and breeding and
- 32:44doing whatever. I think that there should be the
- 32:50possibility for me to make the correct decisions for the
- 32:53animals in my home that I own and that there has to be a
- 32:58better way to educate and provide resources so that people
- 33:04can also do the right quote UN quote, right thing.
- 33:08Here we go. The best thing for their home,
- 33:12their animals, but then also society, right?
- 33:15So we do have to look about, think about big picture.
- 33:19We have to think about safety. We have to think about our
- 33:23communities, we have to think about our shelter populations,
- 33:28all of that stuff. But at the end of the day, I pay
- 33:31my mortgage, I pay my dogs food, I do all these things.
- 33:36And so I just, I'm like, I just don't subscribe to that.
- 33:39And I don't think that it is the way to solve all the world's
- 33:43animal problems. Right.
- 33:45Yeah. And I, I think we're both in
- 33:48agreement. We we wish there were a lot less
- 33:51dogs being produced. 100%. And we wish that the shelters
- 33:56weren't full because the shelters have lots of puppies as
- 34:00well as old dogs and and everything in between.
- 34:03But I don't, I wouldn't say mandatory spay and neuter.
- 34:07I would say spay and neuter is very helpful.
- 34:10Mandatory spay and neuter I don't, I wouldn't agree with.
- 34:14But yeah. Yeah.
- 34:15I think for me it's about, you know, it's the indiscriminate
- 34:20breeding, right? It's the indiscriminate
- 34:22production of animals that is the the critical piece of it.
- 34:27Because when we the indiscriminate breeding can not
- 34:34always, but can also because we have Jackson, we have Tater, we
- 34:39have Layla, we have right. We have a lot of examples of
- 34:42super solid dogs who had were indiscriminately bred.
- 34:46But I think that typically indiscriminately breeding dogs
- 34:54when we are just throwing two dogs together with reckless
- 34:57abandoned to for whatever reason, because we want Mama to
- 35:02be able to be a Mama. I don't know, like all the
- 35:05reasons that people do it. I think that the potential for
- 35:09things to go South and those animals to end up in the shelter
- 35:14is higher than someone who is a breeder like Tran Tran's
- 35:18breeder, you know, a breeder like Tiago's breeder.
- 35:21That's just reality. And so there are other routes
- 35:26that I think that we can take to curb the overpopulation problem,
- 35:33to make sure that the horrific things that happened at
- 35:37Miranda's rescue never happened again or happened less because
- 35:41unfortunately it will happen again and it is happening again.
- 35:44I think that there are just other things that we can do to
- 35:47to to try to turn the tides. Yeah, there's some some gaps in
- 35:55knowledge on the rescue end and I also think there's gaps on in
- 35:59knowledge in the breeder end of what rescue is going through
- 36:03too. But I think before we make these
- 36:06laws that affect literally everyone who has a dog, that we
- 36:12have to have a meeting of the minds and like I come together
- 36:17to understand, we got to be honest about what gaps we have
- 36:20in our own knowledge and what we would need to know to make an
- 36:24educated decision. I think that's fair.
- 36:28Yeah. I think that's why we continue
- 36:30to talk about it ad nauseam. Yeah.
- 36:34I mean, really about, I feel like the, the overwhelming theme
- 36:40of, of our podcast is your relationship with your dog and
- 36:45somehow, some way, all of the different facets of breeder,
- 36:51breeders, rescue, blah, blah, blah, somewhere meeting in the
- 36:55middle for the good of the dogs. And, and how do we do that?
- 36:59And it's why we continue to talk the way we do, because if one
- 37:03person can just shift a little bit, shift just a little bit, it
- 37:08can, it can make a big difference.
- 37:10And that I think this is our way of, of trying to educate our way
- 37:17of trying to get word out about different perspectives.
- 37:23And we're not afraid to argue a little bit back and forth and
- 37:27make faces at each other because we do come from very different,
- 37:30different places and, and are willing to push back on each
- 37:34other. And if that, if somebody's
- 37:36willing to listen to us go on for 30 minutes and it just puts
- 37:41a little kernel in their mind to think about maybe I should think
- 37:44about that a little bit, I'm happy.
- 37:48Yeah, I think, yeah, if we can create, I think we've really as
- 37:52a nation gotten away from a spirit of curiosity to
- 37:56understand other somebody else's point of view.
- 38:00And I think it would serve us well to be curious about what on
- 38:03the rescue side, what breeders are doing and why they are so
- 38:07passionate about their what they're breeding.
- 38:10But then also on the breeding side, why rescue people are so
- 38:14passionate about trying to clear the shelters and what they're?
- 38:18Struggling. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 38:23If you've enjoyed this episode, subscribe, rate and share us
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- 38:35Thanks for listening everybody. Talk to you next time.
- 38:38Bye bye.