Castrating an animal

Ruchel ↓

Tue, Jan 04 2011, 7:36 am

Inspired from another thread!

Did you have this case?
Did you think of asking a rav?
What did he say?

My DH says it's a heated machlokes. Many allow if you symbolically sell it to a non Jew, many don't allow unless it is going to die, but all allow to eat it (capon).

I had a rattie who was "hormonal agressive", meaning she behaved ALWAYS as she was both in heat and pregnant Twisted Evil

The vet told me, either she gets sterilized, or you try to put her with a male, see if she tolerates him, and see if a pregnancy can stop the behaviour. If it doesn't, you may either sterilize her, or get her a second pregnancy with a "vet clinic birth with a c section and sterilization". shock

I was already panicking, DH said let's see what happens. We put her with a guy and it was TOTAL LOVE. They're the only being they tolerate, they love each other. It calmed her down big time. But they never managed to get a pregnancy and I ended up adopting them out to a family who wanted "a cute couple" but without the reproductive side effects Wink

I also had an older female guinea pig, who was statistically a bit old for a litter. I brought her to the vet for a general exam and brought up the topic. He told me many people, when in this case, induce the birth (at the clinic), have a c-section followed by a sterilization, but he didn't think it would good to make it suffer that way (though BH nowadays there are great painkillers for rodents too, and I've certainly seen cats and dogs hooked to an IV after a hard birth there!).
I agreed with him so we got her an X ray to check her pelvic bones, and she was good to go Wink

hadasa ↓

Tue, Jan 04 2011, 7:49 am

A friend of mine asked a Rav about her cat and was told no. She couldn't understand why killing the kittens would be preferable to this, but bh she found homes for them. (three males - had they been female, it would've been harder. ) I don't know what she'll do next time, though...

Mitzvahmom ↓

Tue, Jan 04 2011, 8:02 am

or just rescue an animal from the shelter, and they do it automatically.

So your pet is already fixed when you get it... Then you save an animal from being killed.

Someone told me this week, because of the holidays, the shelter is FILLED with hundreds of puppies and kittens being killed DAILY. Because people think they are a cute present for the holidays, not thinking that puppies and kittens are babies and needs a lot of care and training!

amother

Tue, Jan 04 2011, 8:02 am

I had an male cat who needed to stay indoors (we lived on a high floor of an apartment building) and we fixed him without asking a rav.

It was a medical procedure for the good of the cat, so I didn't see a problem. The cat would be frustrated and more aggressive and might endanger himself trying to get outside (ex. jump off the balcony).

If a man is suffering from testicular cancer, would he refuse life-saving medical treatment because it would sterilize him and go seek out a rav's psak? Yeah..no.

↑ Ruchel

Tue, Jan 04 2011, 8:05 am

There are indeed shelters who castrate the animals "beshitta".

What I personally dislike heavily is when someone breeds "high end" dog or cat races, and sells them sterilized so you can't make it have a litter. That way you have to come back if you want another.
There are also those who push a "moral contract" (because here legally it doesn't go) on you that c'v you won't breed your pet - only "real breeders" are allowed to. I was told by a cop (who breeds tons of stuff from chinchilla to rabbits to guinea pigs) that it's not binding at all.

sequoia

Tue, Jan 04 2011, 8:09 am

Mine are spayed, otherwise they'd keep everyone up with their yowling. If we had a bigger apartment I wouldn't mind letting them have kittens, because kittens are lovely. But... average five a litter... that's ten kittens and two mother cats... not doable in a tiny apartment.

↑ hadasa

Tue, Jan 04 2011, 8:11 am

amother wrote:

I see absolutely no similarity between the two cases, certainly not from a Halachic point of view.