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Dee Blanco, DVM's avatar

Yes, the female version of this post will be up soon.

Yes, the typical shelter policy is now to alter the animals at 2 pounds or 2 months - whichever comes first! It's a blanket policy for everyone. Completely throwing the animals under the bus because we don't have good social policies around animal 'ownership'.

Yes, those are infants still at 2 months old - very underdeveloped bodies, immune systems, and brains.

The authors of this research and the updated research, which I will post soon, had the intention of helping vets and pet parents to make educated decisions about when to do the surgeries. They (the authors, who were vets too) were met with hostility 20 yrs ago and probably much the same in the last 2 years with their latest findings. Thankfully, pet parents are questioning these policies.

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Dee Blanco, DVM's avatar

Yes, the female version of this blog will be posted soon.

Yes, the now customary policy of shelters is to neuter or spay at 2 pounds or 2 months.

The vets who did this research and the more current research had the intention of helping vets and pet parents decide more appropriate ages to alter the animals. Instead, they were met with hostility and rejection of their findings. It continues today, as do the policies from what I can surmise is most of the shelters in this country. Sadly.

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