Legal Question in Civil Rights Law in Washington
dog rescue adoption
Hello -
i am the owner of one female dog and wanted to adopt a rescue dog. rescue programs are telling me that i MUST spay my dog Before they would allow me to adopt a rescue dog ...
Even though the rescue dogs (a companion animal)would be spayed or neutered Before placement...
i have asked my vet about spaying my female dog and he also sees no great medical reason for it .. is it legal
to Force someone to spay an existing dog using the reasoning that if they aren't spayed you are unfit to adopt a rescue animal .... ?
thier reasoning is spaying cuts down on the chance for cancer to develop later... although not all dogs develop
cancer (if they developed it more than not then this could be a viable issue) ... but this is like saying women who don't have children should have radical mastectomies just to cut down on the chance they may develop breast cancer later in life...
confused in seattle ...
a rock and a hard place...
thank you
g
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: dog rescue adoption
Bad analogy on the breast cancer issue. If you want to use it else where you may want to look into the process of mastectomies (radical includes removing underlying muscle tissue and lymph tissue in addition to breast tissue, breast cancer does not originate in lymph or muscle tissue but metastizes or infiltrates into it).
As to be forced to do something; I do not see the program forcing you to do anything. If you want to participate in the program you have to meet certain criteria.