Why do we castrate animals instead of giving them vasectomies?
Why do we castrate animals instead of giving them vasectomies?
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.
A eunuch's life is hard- and nothing else.
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.
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.