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Our current defacto tag about removing/inhibiting the reproductive ability of pets is .

I am wondering if that tag is adequate because of the terminology.

The reason I bring it up is I was unfamiliar with that specific term (although the meaning is quite clear from the word), and some random googling seems to suggest that in reference to animals it is a term that only seems to be commonly used in Australia & New Zealand, and does not seem to be a popular term elsewhere. I'm past the 3rd page on Google and I have not found a link to anything outside of that region.

So it is my opinion that we need to rename the tag to make it easier for future users to find, or maybe just need to find a couple of other common terms to synonymize now.

I'm interested in someone's professional or expert opinion on the terminology. Is this commonly used world wide or is it just confined to a specific region of the world?

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    Thank you, I thought I was the only one who had never heard of desexing.
    – ThomasH
    Commented Oct 13, 2013 at 14:08

1 Answer 1

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The main tag should be the way the experts would find it, if is the canonical term, than it is. Synonyms such as or should be just that, synonyms.

Seems like the canonical term is , as it is the action of neutralizing an animal's gender, and applies for both sexes. As such, I think that it should be the canonical, while , , , etc. are the synonyms.

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  • I agree, but I'm concerned desexing is only used by experts in Austrailia or New Zealand, and someone else (expert or not) won't be able to find the appropriate tag.
    – psubsee2003
    Commented Oct 12, 2013 at 9:09
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    @psubsee2003: In that case, I think neutering is the acceptable term. Synonyms should be desexing, spaying, castration, and probably some more I can't remember.
    – Madara's Ghost
    Commented Oct 12, 2013 at 9:21
  • neutering only refers to males. Spaying only refers to females, so neither is a good catch-all term.
    – psubsee2003
    Commented Oct 12, 2013 at 9:27
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    @psubsee2003: not really neutering refers to the action of neutralizing an animal's gender. It applies to both genders.
    – Madara's Ghost
    Commented Oct 12, 2013 at 9:30
  • Well, then you got me there. I always thought it referred to males only.
    – psubsee2003
    Commented Oct 12, 2013 at 9:32
  • A data point: Wikipedia doesn't even have a redirect for "Desexing", and "Desex" redirects to "Castration", which is definitely males-only (although it seems likely it's just a mistaken redirect). The Neutering article itself does mention that it's usually applied to males, although it's clear that it can be applied generically (unlike spaying, which is female-specific).
    – Wooble
    Commented Oct 15, 2013 at 16:36

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