Rottweiler study links ovaries with exceptional longevity;
The study, published in the December 2009 issue of the journal Aging Cell, found that Rottweilers that were spayed after they were 6 years old were 4.6 times as likely to reach 13 years of age as were Rottweilers that were spayed at a younger age.
The finding is important because the average life expectancy of Rottweiler dogs is 9.4 years, observed research team leader Dr. David J. Waters. “Our results support the notion that how long females keep their ovaries influences how long they live,” he said.
Dr. Waters is the executive director of the Gerald P. Murphy Cancer Foundation at the Purdue Research Park in West Lafayette, Ind. The foundation is home to the Center for Exceptional Longevity Studies, which tracks the oldest living pet dogs in the country.
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Researchers found that female Rottweilers have a distinct survival advantage over males–a trend also documented in humans. That advantage appears to be determined by whether the female dog is sexually intact, however. “Taking away ovaries during the first four years of life completely erased the female survival advantage,” Dr. Waters said.
There remain many good reasons to reproductively alter the family dog, but most are related to owner convenience – the health “benefits” claimed are a decidedly mixed bag and leash laws have largely solved the problem of unwanted litters. But as “spay-neuter” is a key political and legislative tool in service of the broader animal rights agenda to eradicate the ownership of companion animals, studies such as this have a tendency to be studiously ignored and their authors dismissed as unqualified. It’s not just “climate science” that’s been captured by a leftist agenda.