Machismo

Machismo

I’m a firm believer in spaying and neutering all your dogs, but I wasn’t always so sure. I can recall the years right after we bought our farm in Indiana. The ink was hardly dry on the paperwork when a stream of abandoned dogs came by the place, and we began to collect our menagerie. The first was a young female Beagle who stole our hearts. Before I knew it she was our house dog when I never before had plans to have another dog. Of course it made sense to me to have her spayed and of course we did.

The second dog was more problematic for me. Boy was a down on his luck German Shepherd who had mange, not enough to eat, no owner, and had taken up living in one of our barns. Charlene immediately wanted him neutered, but I had a few doubts. She knew the drill far better than I did, and she recited the better disposition and better health we’d notice after neutering him. But I was thinking he won’t be as good a guard dog, and anyway it almost hurt even to think about ending his manhood—or doghood, if you will.

Well. Charlene settled it by explaining that if we didn’t do it, I wasn’t going to have any use for my own manhood. Boy was neutered with dispatch, and immediately we could see the improvements in his life. He was then about 2 years old and lived twelve more years in robust health. That’s a good long run for a 72 pound Shepherd. He was a super guard dog who always protected the farm. I learned a lot about my ignorant prejudices and became a big proponent of neutering all dogs and cats, male or female.

In Latin America the word for the way I used to be is machismo, related to our “macho.” We don’t have an exact equivalent except what we borrowed from the French, “chauvinism.” Well, whatever you call it, it abounds in most parts of the world. It contributes to a general male reluctance to sterilize male animals. They even go further south of the border with men in a group tending to talk louder and longer than the women. Men somehow seem to try to play a more powerful role in everyday life.

This attitude is one factor to combat in getting the maximum number of animals neutered, but even so, I’m impressed with how many men show up with their dogs and cats in their arms for the free or low cost sterilization clinics Aniplant operates every weekend in Havana and other cities. Nora Garcia has found the key to building a demand for the sterilization service—and that key is education. In one television show and two radio shows every week, she exhorts the Cuban public to sterilize their animals, and she’s effective and convincing in this important public program. Just note that last year the number of cats and dogs Aniplant did was 4 times the number of dogs and cats they did just three years before. Progress like that doesn’t happen by accident; it comes from good planning and hard work.

Oh, and it comes from our donors too. Most of the anesthesia medicines used in the Aniplant clinics are paid for, purchased and shipped out of funds donated to The Aniplant Project, Inc (our new corporate nane).

So, thanks for your support and keep striking a blow against chauvinism. We’re all better off when you do.

Les Inglis