Leder kastrering av hanhundar till bättre djurvälfärd?
DjurvälfärdHundHanhundKastrationKirurgisk kastreringAnimal welfareDogMale dogCastrationSurgical castration
Castration of dogs holds many reasons and opinions, therefore methods, traditions and rea-sons vary. The approaches have during time changed from mostly surgical castrations to also including hormonal treatments. Castration is used to control the dog's reproductive abilities, for medical reasons and to possibly rectify problems of behavioral nature. How common a particular method of castration is in a country is highly dependent on the country's traditions. In Sweden it is most common with castration for medical reasons, such as possible elimina-tion of diseases, for example, benign colorectal tumors. In the United States it is more com-mon to castrate by so-called preventive reasons such as behavioral problems, and inhibition of reproduction.
The purpose of this literature review is to examine whether castration of male dogs lead to improved animal welfare. In addition, also human welfare and the collaboration between hu-mans and dogs will be discussed. Illnesses that occur as a result of castration and/or those that occur in absence of castration are of importance in this study. Behaviorally, there are prob-lems in the world regarding dogs and especially male dogs. Studies that have examined if castration may be helpful in reference to these problems regarding behavior will be presented in this literature review.
Some studies indicate that castration of male dogs lead to increased welfare for the dog and other studies mean that it is the welfare of the humans that may be improved by changing the dog?s behavior, for example by reducing aggressiveness that could have the consequence of a bite attack on a human or another dog. In most cases, castration of male dogs has been shown to result in a reduction of such behavioral problems. However, around 4% of the male dogs keep their problems after castration and in some individuals the behavioral problems even increase.
A disease that may occur in absence of castration is prostate enlargement. That is, among oth-ers, a reason why some authors recommend that castration should be praxis at an early age, before the possibility of prostate enlargement is plausible. The male dog?s age is an important part in research. Castration at an early age is predicted to have a positive health aspect and a good prognosis for the dog's future life.
Some studies show that castration increases the risk of tumor growth in the prostate and the presence of prostatic carcinoma. Paradoxically, other studies of diseases of the dog prostate in some cases can be prevented by castration, for example, prostate enlargement. It has been shown that the castration age is an important factor for the outcome of the procedure. That is one of the reasons why some researchers in the field recommend that castration should be the practice at an early age (at approx. 6 weeks of age). Castration of male dogs at an early age is shown in some studies to produce fewer side effects than when castration is performed at later age (12 months).