October 2004 LSAT Section 4 Question 22

Trainer: Research shows that when dogs are neutered in early puppyhood, their leg bones usually do not develop prope...

Shula on October 24, 2023

Why not D?

It shows that C is the correct answer instead of D, but I don't understand what's wrong with D. I think the author's conclusion did not address the "possibility that the benefits of neutering a dog early might outweigh the risk of arthritis." Meanwhile, I don't get why C is correct b/c I don't think we need to bother with the effects of neutering in middle or late puppyhood. Could someone plz help? Thank you so much!

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Emil-Kunkin on October 24, 2023

The author's conclusion is pretty narrow here: to protect your dog from arthritis you should neuter as an adult. Whether there are other benefits to neutering early isn't relevant to this argument, this argument is only concerned with arthritis, and we know that narrowly speaking about arthritis neutering later is a net negative.

C is correct because the author wrongly assumes there are only two options, early puppyhood and adulthood. C correctly notes that there are other options. Perhaps neutering I'd late puppyhood confers the same benefits as neutering in adulthood, but is less painful. This would undermine the conclusion that we should neuter as adults.