[LennonCook]

Originally posted by Dirty Meg: How can you possibly even consider mutilating an animal against it's will? How would you feel if your parents had done that to you when you were a child, merely because it was more convinient?

One of our cats, a not-too-small moggy (he's the biggest cat I've ever seen). The previous owner didn't want him, and her husband had picked him up as a stray (although these people thought it was a girl). We looked underneath, although it seems to hurt the cat to do anything like that, and Mum thinks he has been desexed very early, in someone's back yard. Whoever did it likely used very crude instruments, and we doubt they would have used anesthetic. We now have to pick him up in a very certain way, because to touch him too close to that area seems to hurt him quite alot. This is most certainly mutilation, in that it would have caused quite a bit of pain and it has had lasting damage other than the intent of the operation. When a vet does it, on the other hand, they take specific steps to avoid this. This would have been 'merely convenience', since there would have been no cost involved (except for the cat's health, which they obviously had no regard for). People do not get their pets 'fixed' at a vet because of convenience. We do it because we think it is the best scenario for the pet in the long run.