Whe it came to getting his miniature pinscher, Cliff, neutered 13 years ago, Carlos Rodriquez was hesitant. A 49-year-old dog walker who lives in the Flatiron District, he knew it was the right thing to do, but he just couldn’t go through with it. As a man, Rodriguez identified with his dog’s plight.
“I thought, ‘He’ll be smaller, or not muscular, more girly,’ ” he says of his 15-pound pooch. It took Rodriguez three years to finally
get Cliff fixed, even though veterinarians recommend that dogs get neutered at 4 to 6 months of age. By the time Cliff went under the knife, “he had some huge balls for a little pinscher,” Rodriguez recalls. “He was humping everything.”
While it’s a common and widely encouraged practice to sterilize dogs for their population control and general health, some otherwise rational men have a hard time when it comes to snipping their male pups.
“Men feel an enormous vulnerability about their penises,” says Gracie Landes, a certified sex therapist who practices in Manhattan. Landes says the neutering procedure can bring up uncomfortable feelings in men, especially since a dog’s testicles are so exposed.
“When a man sees an empty sack with nothing in it in his dog, he is identifying with it a little,” adds Landes. “He thinks, ‘What if I had an empty sack?’ ”
When the decision to neuter a dog is difficult for an owner, Dr. Andrea Y. Tu, a veterinarian at Park East Animal Hospital, suggests an interesting solution: Neuticles, a testicular implant for dogs that came on the market in 1995.
“You take something out and put something in,” Tu says of the procedure, which is most commonly done at the time the dog is neutered.
And, she says, “[The implants are] completely safe.”
Greg Miller, 60, invented Neuticles in 1993 when he went to get his bloodhound, Buck, neutered. “I felt guilty,” says Miller, who is based in Missouri. “I wanted Buck to maintain his natural look.”
In the nearly two decades since his product hit the market, Miller says, “We’ve Neuticled almost 600,000 pets internationally.” The product’s Web site boasts that it “allows pets to retain their natural look, self-esteem and aids the pet’s owner with the trauma associated with altering.”
Concerns about aesthetics and sexual identity aside, veterinarians are quick to note that there are many reasons to put Fido under the knife. “There are a lot of health benefits to neutering,” says Dr. Louise Murray, vice president of the
ASPCA Bergh Memorial Hospital in Manhattan. Murray says neutering can prevent testicular cancer, reduce the likelihood of dogs developing enlarged or infected prostates, and help prevent the development of behaviors like humping, fighting and roaming, if the procedure is performed when the dog is young.
But Eugene Kim, 29, a grad student who lives in the Flatiron District, isn’t convinced. Neither of his two French bulldogs, Budgy and Bowey, is neutered and they’re both 3 years old.
“The pros and cons canceled each other out,” says Kim, who adds that he researched the matter. “I don’t want to change their personalities. I like them energetic.” But, he concedes, “The fact that I’m a guy and they’re guys . . . It definitely makes me cringe.”
Not all men are uncomfortable with neutering. Dan Klein, a 29-year-old attorney who lives in Clinton Hill, altered his 3-year-old German shepherd-boxer-pitbull mix, Carson, when he was less than a year old and didn’t think much of it.
“He still humps dogs a lot,” laughs Klein. “I don’t think he misses his balls.”
pets@nypost.com