A review by thewickedbookworm
Our Dogs, Ourselves: The Story of a Singular Bond by Alexandra Horowitz

2.0

I'm a rescue worker and this book ended up pissing me off to no end. The behavior and psychology info was fine, but the author is completely naive if she thinks we're anywhere near a situation that would allow us to reconsider current spay/neuter practices. In a perfect world, maybe sterilization could happen at six or twelve months instead of eight weeks, but we are far from a perfect world. I sympathize with the fact that her cat died while at a spay appointment - not from the procedure, mind you, which only carries a 0.1% mortality rate - but during the administration of pre-surgical pain medication, which could have been from any number of reasons, including unknown health issues or an error on the administering vet/tech's part. That experience cannot be the basis for a blanket opposition to spay/neuter. Animal overpopulation must be handled in one way or another, and currently there are two ways: spay/neuter programs, or mass euthanasia. I know which one I prefer.