This thing about restricting his access to females seems to be your key objection. I would point out that wild dogs don't mate - only the alpha female and alpha male mate. Somehow, the rest of them control their urges without humans around to cut their balls off for them.

People have had dogs for thousands of years. The practice of neutering them only started in the 30's and really only became commonplace in the 70s because millions of stray dogs were being euthanized. There are other ways to control a dog other than cutting off its balls. If it is properly trained and sees you as above it in the pack, much of the sexually aggressive behavior will not be a problem. For example, when feeding it, you never let it eat first as the order in which it eats signals to the dog what its status is. It must be constantly reinforced that its status is the lowest member of the pack.

You said that from a dogs perspective, it's better off having its balls cut off because the owner is not able to deal with their sexually aggressive behavior. So it really is about what's best for the owner again, not the dog.

I will concede though that in some cases, you might be right. Neutering might be the best and only option but it should not be the default option for all dogs.

The original thread was about whether neutering a dog harmed it or not. But since you wish to expand the scope of this, I will say that I did think about the insect thing. There is a novel by George Orwell where he goes up to the top of a skyscraper and looks down at people who now look like ants - the same thing really. Your ability to care about others depends upon how far removed you are from them and we are very far removed from insects. Even having said that, I think it would be wrong to, for example, pull the wings off a fly. That would be cruelty for no purpose.

Do insects feel pain? I used to think you had to have a spinal cord to feel pain so they could not. I have just found out that I was wrong. This article says that not only do they feel pain but they also feel chronic pain.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/insects-can-experience-chronic-pain-study-finds-180972656/#:~:text=Over%2015%20years%20ago%2C%20researchers,way%20humans%20react%20to%20pain.

So my first instincts about someone pulling the wings off a fly being immoral were correct.

A counter argument to what Judaka?

But all of your objections are based upon what's best for the human owner. I could imagine aliens making the same arguments about us if we were their pets - what's best for the alien is also best for the human because it's easier. And while dogs are not humans, they are one of the closest relatives. For example, wild dogs are the only animal I know of that will actually care for an injured member of their pack. Any other animal in the wild is dead if it gets seriously injured but wild dogs will hunt for the pack member and feed it until it gets better by regurgitating the food. Does that remind you of any other species? I can only think of one - us.

Dogs may not have the same mental capacity as us but they show similar emotions - what draws us to them is some of their best qualities are qualities we admire the most when we see them in other humans. We see them in their raw form in dogs. For example, a german shepherd's owner abandoned him and he waited for a whole year in the same place hoping that he would come back. When a dog is abandoned, it actually experiences physical pain from its anguish. There are studies that show this. So, perhaps you are right and the dog would be prepared to have its balls chopped off to please you but that doesn't mean that it is the right thing to do, assuming the we care about its well being.

Actually, you are wrong. Animals do have rights - that's why you can be prosecuted for cruelty to animals. But I caution you - even if they did not according to the law, they would have inherent rights from a moral perspective. The original question was really about whether dogs getting neutered harms them or not - that is separate from the question of their rights. A lot of people who work for these organizations that you scorn, e.g Takis Shelter, say that neutering is the right thing to do. I am not interested in getting into an argument with people who don't care in the first place. If you don't care, sod off quite frankly. What I am trying to grasp is how people who do care still think neutering is the right thing to do? Does it not harm the animal irreparably?

I think most people would agree that cruelty to animals is wrong. They don't have to be self-aware to feel pain. The extent to which they are away is debatable. If aliens cut off your balls, for example, because they wanted you to be tamer as their pet, you would feel wronged. These arguments about self-awareness etc tend to be built on shaky ground. But lets change the example - lets say we cut off the dogs leg, would it be okay because the animal was not self-aware?

It's not really despicable though because if you left it in the wild, it suffers terribly. Also, research shows that a special part of a dogs brain lights up when they are with their owner. An owner’s scent activates the parts of a dog‘s brain associated with pleasure. So, having an owner is a great thing for the dog. It is just the "cutting off the balls bit" that troubles me.

Let me reframe the question - if the dog could speak and tell us what it wanted and we gave it a choice between living with humans and all the advantages that brings or keeping its testicles, which would it chose? If the aliens gave us the same choice, I think a lot of the males here, like almost all of them, would chose to fend for themselves.