Spaying and Neutering

Spaying and Neutering Spaying and Neutering Spaying and Neutering By Maeve Maddox A local public service announcement invites listeners to telephone for further information â€Å"about spay and neutering.† A Web search finds numerous examples of the verb spay joined with the participle form: This vet clinic in SW Portland offers low-cost spay and neutering for cats and dogs. Pet Spay and Neutering Program–Just Fix It [USDA] provides a list of programs in each state that provides low cost or free spay and neutering services for cats. Several institutions and organizations offer help for pet spay and neutering or low-cost service.   The present participle of the verb spay is spaying. The examples should read â€Å"spaying and neutering†: This vet clinic in SW Portland offers low-cost spaying and neutering for cats and dogs. Pet Spaying and Neutering Program–Just Fix It [USDA] provides a list of programs in each state that provides low cost or free spaying and neutering services for cats. Several institutions and organizations offer help for pet spaying and neutering or low-cost service.   An easy way to avoid misusing the word spay in announcements of this kind would be to use only the word neuter. Unlike spay, which refers to the removal of an animal’s ovaries, the word neuter can mean either â€Å"to castrate† or â€Å"to spay.†    The past and present participle forms of the verb spay are frequently mispronounced and misspelled: Incorrect: I got my cat spaded and she got [a] hernia from the stitches. Correct : I got my cat spayed and she got [a] hernia from the stitches. Incorrect: I am contemplating  spading  and declawing my kitten when she turns 6 months old.   Correct : I am contemplating  spaying and declawing my kitten when she turns 6 months old. The past tense forms of both verbs–neuter and spay–end in -ed: neutered and spayed. The words are pronounced [nyoo-terd] or [noo-terd]) and [spayd]. Speakers who mispronounce and misspell the word spayed as spaded are perhaps confused by the existence of the word spade [spayd], which functions as both noun and verb. The verb spade (to dig) has a past form in -ed: If you did not plow or  spade the  garden site in the fall, turn the  soil  in spring as soon as it is dry enough to work. The Alcotts thrived as Bronson  spaded the  earth for his acre of garden. An interesting etymological fact is that both words–spay and spade–derive from spatha, the Latin word for a broad-bladed sword. The verb spay entered English from French espeier, â€Å"to cut with a sword.† Its earliest meaning in English was â€Å"to kill a deer with a sword,† as in these directions in a 1425 hunting manual: â€Å"spay him [the deer] even behind the shoulder forward to the heart.† The same manual also uses spay to mean removing the ovaries of an animal. The word spay got its name from the cutting aspect of a sword, whereas the word spade got its name from a sword’s tapered shape. It may help to keep the words spay and spade apart by remembering that animals are spayed with delicate medical instruments having no resemblance to broad garden implements. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Expressions category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:100 Words for Facial ExpressionsHomonyms, Homophones, Homographs and HeteronymsPractice or Practise? Spaying and Neutering Spaying and Neutering Free Online Research Papers Rarely does one nod ones head in approval at the thought of surgically removing dogs or cats testicles. Removing the ovaries and uterus remains similarly unheralded except for when we clarify that we mean to chip away at the sexual organs of animals all for the sake of the expensive oriental rug that runs across the living room floor as luxuriously as a furry Fido or a purring Princess. Indeed in the back of our neighbors judgmental minds lurks the suspicion that we pet owners aim to spay our female animals or neuter our male creatures because of selfish human reasons. After all, not only may a female dog in heat ruin a rug, but also an intact dog is reportedly a threat to small children in the house. Granted, sparing one’s children is hardly deemed a selfish human desire, yet we still dismiss the fact that â€Å"the age of three is prime time for an intact male dog to be involved with a terrible tragedy, such as †¦ killing children† when we admit that â€Å"obviously, not all intact male dogs are aggressive child-killers† (Davis). In a fit of projection, we humans tend to personalize the medical matter of spaying and neutering, as if our own reproductive organs – let alone sex life and hunting skills – were on the line. But research shows that expert after expert believes that it is for the sake of the animal that we allow and perform these surgical procedures. Indeed, keeping an animal intact may be more selfish, for people who want to breed dogs or cats for show are typically those who oppose state-mandated neutering programs, which – together with educational programs- have been responsible for the fact that about 75 percent of d ogs and cats have been neutered or spayed (Woolf). With mostly competitive breeders and other extremists policing the privates of animals to keep them intact, a second look at the more humane reasons for these surgical procedures is certainly warranted. As the research shows, spaying and neutering are the single most effective methods of not only easing the strain on overpopulated shelters, but also for keeping cats and dogs healthy and safe. Overpopulation of cats and dogs lead to a burden on society. Animals reproduce at extremely high rates and may give birth to a large litter of newborns. Research Papers on Spaying and NeuteringGenetic EngineeringInfluences of Socio-Economic Status of Married MalesBook Review on The Autobiography of Malcolm XThe Spring and AutumnHip-Hop is ArtPersonal Experience with Teen PregnancyEffects of Television Violence on ChildrenCapital PunishmentResearch Process Part OneThe Effects of Illegal Immigration