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Comment by 1024core | Hacker News Reader

> Both mice and non-human primates fully regained fertility after stopping the drug. Mice regained fertility within six weeks, and non-human primates fully recovered their sperm count in 10-15 weeks.

Great recurring source of revenue for the drug company!

Though I'm more interested in feral animals like dogs. It looks like this drug may work on dogs too? If so, it would be a huge boon for cities and villages in India.

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Why would Cities and Villages in India want a reversible dog contraceptive? They want a cheap, easily deployable, indefinite one.

I'm saying that a dog contraceptive is what those places need. That fact that it's reversible is a downside.

There's already a permanent and cheap dog contraceptive. It's called neutration.

The problem in places that have feral dog problems isn't the lack of a contraceptive, it's lack of funds, skilled vets, or (and I think this is the main one) political and cultural will to get it done.

I'm not sure why India is getting singled out here, lots of places around the world have a dog problem. India might have the largest number of strays on paper but only because it's huge.

For India the best option is castration and hysterectomy

Seems like neutering them would be cheaper and there’s no risk of the dogs missing a drug cycle.

Wtf? This is ridiculous. Who the fuck is going to be giving feral dogs a pill everyday? And why would you want a reversible contraceptive for feral dogs? You want a one-and-done irreversible one, which neutering is.

If it could be mixed into dog food it could be fairly easy to use. You'd just have to feed stray dogs for a decade or two and have the problem mostly solved. With added benefit of stray dogs being less of a nuisance if they are getting a bit domesticated by feeding them regularily.

Neutering is not possible in villages. You'd be hard pressed to find a vet anywhere nearby.

Usually this is done by people who visit the village and do it all at once.

So you think that it's more feasible to obtain thousands of pills and have someone give pills to stray dogs daily than it is to have a vet visit the village once?

Having people go out and give a pill to feral dogs daily or near daily seems like a waste of time. Just go out and shoot them, or capture them and put them down. Its a cheaper and more permanent solution.

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