Service dogs are required to be neutered whether male or female, at least in the US.
I do think most of our country's push to spay & neuter is to help combat the pet and feral animal overpopulation. While I usually dislike doing invasive altering without real need, I've come to realize that it IS a real need. The sad fact is indeed that most "average pet owners" aren't properly equipped to control unwanted pregnancies, and all it takes is ONE "ooops" to create hundreds or thousands of new, unhomed, and usually mutt animals.
Besides our farm being the local "drop spot" since we have no local shelters or animal control -- and this is a very pricey deterrent to me already, because we've struggled to feed the numbers we get in the past -- but I must, with such great shame, admit to learning my lesson firsthand. My first dog (Achaiah, whom I spoke of in my intro), was the smartest, most loyal, best-listening dog ever. I never worried about off-leash or "oopsies" with her. I kept her on the leash whenever she was in heat and only took her outside when the neighborhood dogs weren't around. She was a great dog who listened and always waited permission to go out... Until I guess she had enough of that nonsense. She was 5 or 6, had never given me issue, decided she -oh so needed it-, and she waited until I was hugely pregnant (with my 2nd, no less) and carrying groceries in both arms before she literally tried to push me down and bolted as I came in the door. Lost her panties somewhere and came back pregnant. I learned my lesson, never was there an 'oopsie' again, and I found homes for the (luckily small) litter.
Still, I should have spayed her, because she ended up dying of pyometra, which I'd never even heard of until then. I had 12 wonderful years with her, but I wish I'd had more. I feel like there definitely would have been more, and I spent thousands trying to save her when it was too late. I'd thought I was an exceptionally responsible pet owner, especially for having gotten her in my teens, but being an average pet owner and never doing anything remotely 'professionally', I'm now astounded at how little I knew for working so hard to be a good one.
Now I've done much more research and fully support it. In fact, I'll admit that I was pretty offended at first when I learned of spay/neuter contracts. I'm a farmer, and when I buy an animal, it's mine outright and I usually indeed want to breed the best ones. But my good-ol-had-critters-my-whole-life mentality has certainly changed, especially due to all the numbers of pregnant/obviously lactating dogs and cats that have been dropped off at my place since we moved here, and this site and others have taught me so much about proper pet breeding. Unless people are devoting considerable time, effort, and funds to doing it properly, I do wish we'd see more affordable neutering. We used to get twice-yearly specials at our local humane society for like $35, and here we pay over $100, sometimes over $150 to spay females.
Anyway, I appreciate the link and all the discussions! It did make me curious, and I asked a rescue (hrs away) if they would ever be willing to use spay & neuter contracts on puppies since there are health benefits to waiting until they're older, but of course shelters aren't particularly comfortable with that idea.
(Not just Achaiah & awesome forums -- my 13 yo daughter wants to be a vet and start a no-kill shelter for our area, despite us pretty much being one already
, and she's also taught me a lot in the last several years!)