Just to touch on this one, now that I am at a real computer and can look at it better. This is a very slanted and biased site that seems to twist the facts.
They make a claim that Sweden says it is illegal to castrate a dog, I could find no reference to that anywhere else I looked. Granted I did find that only about 10% of dogs (no mention of cats) are spayed or neutered in Sweden but they have a different culture and view pet ownership differently. There is less of a problem with people relinquishing pets for behavior problems, less stray pets walking around, people take more responsibility for their animals in general, it is an entire cultural and mental shift from America in terms of pets. I may not have found it but what I did find didn't point to illegal just less supported.
The site makes a claim that the American Veterinary officially stated that "mandatory spay/neuter is bad" which may be true but I am guessing entirely out of context because their site has an entire page devoted to spaying and neutering to reduce over population. https://www.avma.org/public/PetCare/Pages/spay-neuter.aspx . If I had to go out on a limb and guess that comment would be in direct response to mandatory spay/neuter of a specific breed or requirements in some areas that all adopted pets must be spayed/neutered prior to adoption. So either as a statement that it is wrong to spay/neuter a specific breed just for being that breed or that requiring it prior to adoption means that sick/young animals who aren't healthy enough for surgery may not be adoptable kind of statement.
The site says that neutering does not reduce the risk of prostate cancer as people claim..... Neutering reduces the risk of testicular cancer which is not prostate cancer. In fact, the most common type of prostate cancer in dogs is adenocarcinoma, which predominates in intact males or dogs that were recently neutered. Which means the most common form of prostate cancer is found in dogs who AREN'T neutered or were recently neutered (which indicates that if they were neutered earlier they may have been at a lower risk). Although prostate cancer is not influenced by testosterone, that any studies have found, so neutering doesn't help either in any recognizable way. There was a study in 2007 that linked prostate cancer to neutering in dogs, but it was one study and there is not actual evidence to back it up beyond that one study. It could be coincidental or it could be a cause. Since we still can't say 100% what triggers prostate cancer it really is hard to say which way it goes since neutered males are more likely to get prostate cancer but unneutered males are more likely to get the most common type.... which is the right view? Hard to say and I doubt any of us here have the medical knowledge to really decide that and all the research is dog related and the more veterinary science advances the more apparent it is becoming that cats and dogs are different. Neutering does reduce testicular cancer though because they are gone.
They do vasectomy's on zoo animals because they can reverse it if needed and still collect sperm if needed. Simple, driven by possible future need not medical benefits. Add on it keeps the animal closer to their natural unaltered behaviors and since most zoo double as animal research locations it is in the best interest of research to not alter behavior any.
Some studies have tied early neutering to bone cancer (again in dogs) so they recommend waiting until 1 year old. Neutering alters the hormones which affects bone growth. I will give them that but cats who are neutered early tend to grow taller and longer than cats who aren't neutered early. I could see that increasing risk of bone cancer if nutrition is off and they aren't getting enough calcium to increase bone density while growing. There is also more bone which would kinda imply more area for cancer to possibly develop in. Again though the study was on dogs not cats. Cats are smaller than dogs and the larger the dog breed the more risk of bone cancer which would tie size into risk. All that could also lead to the conclusion that it is the final size of the animal that affects bone cancer risk and since early neutering allows the animal to get slightly larger that is why there is slightly more risk of bone cancer. But the studies say to wait until one year, not to never do it. After the animal is a year old neutering has no effect on bone cancer risk.
Anytime you find a site like that with bold easy to read WARNINGS for this or anything else you really need to do research into each of those points. It is way too easy to twist and leave information off that changes the conclusion.
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