Technical Advances and Issues
- Spaying & Neutering - In the 1940s and 1950s, the practice of spaying an neutering began for dogs. In the beginning, technology for spaying and neutering was not extremely advanced, and the process was often long and difficult. Because of this, many veterinarians did not perform spays and neuters. In the 60s, discoveries backing the theory that chances of mammary cancer could be reduced by 96.4% by performing these procedures earlier were made, and veterinarians began performing these procedures. In the 1980s, spaying and neutering of cats began. Since the start of spaying and neutering, the process has continued to improve, and this is one of the leading advances ways one of the major ethical issues with using animals as pets has been decreased. Previously, overpopulation was an extreme issue, and still is, however, spaying and neutering has lowered the number of animals, especially the number of unwanted animals. These unwanted animals end up homeless and starving to death, causing activists to advocate spaying and neutering to lessen the likelihood of having a large population of unwanted animals in the area.
- Animal Shelters -The earliest animal shelters evolved from pounds. These pounds were used in colonial towns to host livestock that had escaped, and could be retrieved for a fee. As this process progressed to include dogs and cats, owners tended to neglect retrieving the animals because of the little monetary value they held. The ASPCA, started in 1886, was the first animal welfare organization, and advocated for the use of animal control and shelters. Public safety and protection of private property rights were the main focuses initially, however, eventually humane care and treatment of animals became the primary focus. In 1874, the first organization to focus on humane treatment of shelter animals was created. This organization was the Women’s Branch of the Pennsylvania SPCA in Philadelphia. (Lila Miller, 2007) Focus on treatment of animals and the quality of life offered to shelter animals increased in the late 1970s. Input by the veterinary community began to increase during this period. This new input caused many shelters to shift from focusing on provide humane deaths for unclaimed animals to focusing on effective care and saving as many animals as possible. Now, there are more than 5,000 animal shelters in the United States. Some of these shelters are regulated by the state, however, not all animal shelters are. Continuing to improve the quality of care at animal shelters and working to decrease the number of animals euthanized annually is a work in progress, and the constant focus on animal activist groups nationally and globally.
- Euthanasia - Technical Issues that are still in debate include euthanasia, and the ethics of euthanasia. Euthanasia is the process of painlessly killing an animal. Debated in every situation, both with humans and animals, many people are against euthanasia, as well as many are for it. Because of this, those for the process have done extensive research to improve the quality of euthanasia and prevent animals from suffering. While early euthanasia methods included clubbing, drowning, electrocution, and carbon monoxide poisoning — all of which seems very unethical by today’s standards —current methods are much more humane, typically done by injection, and are simple and painless. Neither expensive nor time consuming, euthanasia has been a method used by many animal shelters to remove animals in which they are unable to care for. While this has been a method relied on for an extensive period of time, many shelters are transitioning into no-kill centers, working to do everything possible to remove the possibility of killing innocent animals based on human action.