Take a look round any centre, gumtree and free ads and explain to me why we shouldn't neuter all dogs that come in? Of course there are some owners who are hugely responsible and take every step to ensure that their dog never gets the opportunity to mate with any dog, however the majority of normal pet owners don't often realise the difficulty in having an unneutered pet until it's too late and the dog has either escaped and mated or in season and been mated.
How many times have we had stories on here of dogs accidentally mated, or stories of meeting someone in the park withtheir inseason dog oflead.

Rescues have to do what they can to prevent the overbreeding and irresponsibility of dog ownership otherwise we would simply become a rehoming service not a rescue.

I think that like anything it's what you want to believe but I know that 2 of my nonnas dogs that were not do both eventually succumbed to prostrate related illness and the amount of times I have heard " oh I want my bitch to have a litter as it's the best thing for her" ...

Clearly not neutering dogs isn't working otherwise we wouldn't have theamount of litters we do .
I fully support the mandatory neutering of all rescue dogs regardless of age, and am currently involved with trying to get legislation to make this essential along with microchipping of dogs to try and curb the over population we have.

I would far rather have possibly a few incidents of neutering related ilness than have the faces of the ones that don't survive the council pound haunt me.

Rescues don't have the time to chase up owners to ensure that they have neutered the dogs they rehome so they must try and neuter before rehoming. There are few incidents where we will rehome with voucher for neutering however ideally we wouldneuter dog whilst in current home the move.

Further we give the option to new owners go pay extra and have keyhole spay so less of a recovery. Male dogs its an easier recovery.

Thanks for the posts everyone. I can see why rescues would want to neuter - especially when you think how many irresponsible people are out there - but should these people be getting dogs? And wouldn't rescues be attracting a more responsible crowd anyway?

I've always said I'd love to rescue a dog, but I am against the neutering of males if they are healthy so that cuts me out from almost all rescues.

Thanks for the posts everyone. I can see why rescues would want to neuter - especially when you think how many irresponsible people are out there - but should these people be getting dogs? And wouldn't rescues be attracting a more responsible crowd anyway?

I've always said I'd love to rescue a dog, but I am against the neutering of males if they are healthy so that cuts me out from almost all rescues.

Interesting thoughts Azz,
Like you I can see why they do it but I am against routine neutering.
I also don't like rescue's that insist that you neuter your own dogs before they would let you adopt one of there dogs.My dogs are my responsilbility and I do what I think is correct for them and neutering is not one of them.

Raz was (and is) entire. And so was Daisy when I got her. It`s always worth looking at the policies of small Rescues - they don`t all neuter you know.

If you get someone who wants to adopt saying all the right things and ticking the right boxes, it's can be hard to distinguish between good and bad owners.

It could be argued that the person who is empathic against neutering is not a suitable person to own an entire dog. It matters not to me whether a dog in a rescue centre has or has not his testes, if i wanted to adopt a male dog. Lack of body parts should not be deciding influence.

We had no plans to neuter Harvey however he had undescended testes and it was considered beneficial health wise to get him done..

I've had 2 rescue dogs in the past, both from local but different rescues. My male Doberman was entire. He's with different owners now and to this day he remains entire, I see him regularly at fun shows and on the park. Nobody has ever followed up correctly on his neutering (he was supposed to have been done). My collie bitch was rehomed to me entire and again, no follow up has occurred, but I had her spayed myself.

As for other draconian measures that rescues insist on, this is one of the reasons why people are drawn to BYB etc because they make no demands re neutering and are often cheaper.

Maybe it would be better to have a more in-depth vetting procedure, and spending the money on that instead of the cost of neutering? I can definitely see the benefit in neutering females - they would after all, be the ones left with the pups, and they are the ones who have to go through being in heat (where I guess the frustration isn't pleasant). But I feel it is unnecessary (and dangerous) for males.

- it takes two to produce puppies & it's a much less invasive procedure for a male to be neutered than a female to be spayed.

I have to disagree, people who have a holistic and natural view are not 'unfit' to own dogs (if anything, the opposite ). I am against unnatural practises that I feel are detrimental, such as the genital mutilation of males and females (circumcision). And I think it's reasonable and astute to want to do all you can so that your dog will be able to live a life as healthy and fit as possible.

I agree with rescues who want rescue dogs neutered. It's been known for rescue dogs to be used for breeding - perhaps we agree to differ here

I have no problems with it if there's a medical reason to get it done