This is now stale, but my greater point was that it is possible to exaggerate how brutal these procedures are in an effort to mislead. Groups like this will use scary language like amputation and mutilation, but they never refer to ovo-hystorectomy in the same way.
The lesser point was that I agree that spaying and neutering is a good thing. Part of that is the benefit to the animal. But none of these surgeries traumatize the animal for life, either. Social costs of ear cropping? Really? Is there no social cost to having no balls?
Convicted on appeal is a foreign (literally) concept to me as an American, so I had trouble parsing the headline.
He was acquitted by a lower court, so the prosecution appealed and got a conviction from the appeals court.