Some owners consider ear cropping and tail docking necessary for some unfounded reasons. But the truth about ear cropping and tail docking is that they are unnecessary tortures to human’s most loyal best friend. If you’re considering having your dog’s ear cropped or its tail docked, read first about some owners’ absurd reasons of having their pets undergo such painful procedures. See if any of these reasons warrant the need of hurting your own dog.
The Procedures Promote Hygiene
Most owners who had their dogs’ ears cropped and tails docked say they want to promote hygiene. The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) issued a formal statement saying that there are no scientific proofs that the mutilating procedures can promote hygiene in dogs. In the first place, it’s the owner’s responsibility to keep his or her dog clean regardless of how long and hairy its ears or tail is. If you’re too lazy to clean your dog’s ears and rear end, then don’t get a dog breed with long ears and hairy tails to begin with. Don’t get a dog altogether.
The Procedures Improve Appearance
Another wrong reason you’ll often hear is that ear cropping and tail docking improve a dog’s appearance. But if you think about it… whose appearances are these owners improving, their dogs’ or their own? Dogs don’t care about how they look, but their owners do. So the procedures are not really done to promote the poor animal’s look, but to blow up the owner’s ego by having a “perfect-looking” dog. Besides, dogs are born already cute; surgeries are not needed to make them look like they are.
Ear Cropping Conforms to Breed Standards
The sad thing about dog ear cropping is that some kennel clubs accept or even require their members to have the procedure done on some dog breeds. They say that dogs have have to conform to some breed standards. A hard and fast rule should be imposed saying that “standards” should be achieved by a careful breeding selection process. Cutting the process short by a scalpel should not be accepted.
The Procedures Don’t Hurt
Owners say that ear cropping or tail docking doesn’t hurt dogs especially when done at a young age. But when you hear a puppy yelp when it bumps its newly cropped ears or docked tail onto something, then you know the procedure does hurt. A part of the dog’s body is forcefully taken away by a veterinary surgeon, how can it not hurt after the anesthesia wears off?
They’re Legal, So Why Not
Some heartless (even stupid, forgive the language) owners say that the procedures are legal, so why not have them. By far, this is the cruelest and most reckless reason one could ever come up to justify the mutilation of his or her dog. If you have no good reason other than you can do anything you want to your dog, then think of something else. It doesn’t mean that ear cropping and tail docking are legal in your country you can subject your dog to them.
The Possible Complications
God forbid you’re still not convinced that there’s really no good reason for dog ear cropping and tail docking, maybe reading about the possible complications can convince you.
1. Anesthesia overdose – Dog ear cropping and tail docking is done under general anesthesia. A rational veterinarian would tell you that any procedure done under general anesthesia pose the risk of irreversible overdose that can kill any animal.
2. Blood loss – The procedures’ aftercare is tedious; you should be able to manage it yourself or you risk exposing your dog to temporary anemia or even lethal blood loss.
3. Severe infection – If you can’t properly care for the wounds, severe infection will occur.
4. Mutilated ear (wrong procedure) – Some inexperience vets mutilate dog’s ears by wrongly slicing them with their scalpels. Or the several weeks wrapping as part of the aftercare could also go wrong mutilating the dog for life.