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The Forum > Article Comments > Nip and tuck - the painful cost of breed standards > Comments

Nip and tuck - the painful cost of breed standards : Comments

By Walt Brasch, published 2/4/2009

Tail docking and ear cropping: cosmetic surgery for dogs or preventative treatment?

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Strange. If this article concerned human cosmetic surgery people would be going it hammer and tongs. The feminists would cop flack, parents would be accussed by other smug parents of not bringing their kids up properly, men would be accused setting unrealistic bench marks, the Press would be identified as the real culprits and the amorphous "The Government" would be lambasted by all comers for not Doing Something.

But surgery on dogs for no other reason than that humans want them to look different to the way nature intended gets passed over without a comment.

Both my mother and my grandmotherfather, who bred dogs, spent years concerned with this issue, but I, as merely a dog owner, have always considered it bizarre that we really think we are so top-of-the-heap that we can dictate how the "lesser" animals should be mutilated in order that a mere handful of us can find them more aestethically pleasing.
Posted by Romany, Thursday, 2 April 2009 4:08:48 PM
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As one who has owned dogs all my life (never had a Pomeranian, though), I agree completely, Romany, with the caveat that tail-docking can make some very large breeds a bit easier to live with, especially if people allow them into the house.

My last dog, which very sadly died of a tick, was a greyhound/ridgeback cross (from the pound as a puppy, like all my dogs). She had a long, very hard tail that she used vigorously. It was responsible for one of my friends requiring knee surgery after she slapped him with it from one side unexpectedly and knocked him over.

Even so, I never contemplated docking, as I grew up with a corgi (pedigree) that had been routinely docked, despite being not of show quality. While she was a happy dog, she missed out on the extra communication that a dog uses its tail to provide.

My current dog is a very large cattle dog cross (also from the pound as a puppy) with a truly luxuriant tail that he uses like a flag. I can tell his mood merely by looking at the tail. He also gains an additional counterbalance which he uses to good effect.

I suspect the lack of interest in the topic is that there are really not that many dog-owners in cities any more. I have always trained my dogs to my voice as I hate leads. I have noticed a huge increase over the past 10 or 15 years in people who are overtly scared of dogs as their first response. The reason, of course is that they have rarely encountered them and they have had a constant barrage of media sensationalising the very few attacks.

In the country, it's different, but even in a couple of large country towns I've seen the same response.
Posted by Antiseptic, Friday, 3 April 2009 6:30:22 AM
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There's your problem right there...

"Because dogs are considered by state laws to be property..."

Keeping animals for the amusement of human beings is already a form of barbarism. The rest of the article simply illustrates the depth of that barbarity.

"Ear cropping and tail docking, according to the AKC, are “acceptable practices..."

Not, it would appear, to the animals themselves.

"The cropping, usually done by owners with minimal training, often leaves ears 'mangled, misshapen, or almost as buds on the head,'"

But I guess they are only animals, so that's all right.

"Amputation 'of any body part of any living being will certainly elicit a pain response from the nervous system, even at two or three days,'"

Ya think, DiNozzo?

Instead of agonizing about these particularly nauseating forms of torture, would it not be smarter if we simply came to realize how unutterably uncivilized it is, to keep animals enslaved as pets?
Posted by Pericles, Friday, 3 April 2009 8:13:31 AM
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Pericles:"keep animals enslaved as pets"

I have never "enslaved" my dogs, they are my friends and companions and I treat them as part of my life, taking them with me everywhere I can. I train them to behave properly and exercise self-control. I never, ever hit them and very rarely have had to restrain them with a lead or chain. In return, they give me unconditional loyalty, unquestioning affection and excellent security. They are not slaves in any sense of the word, but partners even if somewhat junior ones.

OTOH, I've encountered plenty of animals that spend their lives locked up in tiny yards where their only contact with the outside world is the sounds that come through the fence and the only affection they get is the quick pat on the head as their owner comes home from work. Those dogs, quite understandably, become anti-social and neurotic. I guess you could call that enslavement.
Posted by Antiseptic, Friday, 3 April 2009 9:34:31 AM
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How refreshing to read Romany's and Antiseptic's posts which reveal a gentle compassion towards defecencelss animals, which is sadly lacking in many other humans.

And how disturbing to read of Pericle's post which reveals the arrogance of humans who believe they have the right to dictate the fate (extinction) of other species.
Posted by Protagoras, Friday, 3 April 2009 12:37:13 PM
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Thank you for bringing humour to the proceedings, Protagoras, and for reminding us just how valuable it is to have spin-doctors available for hire.

>>How refreshing to read Romany's and Antiseptic's posts which reveal a gentle compassion towards defecencelss animals, which is sadly lacking in many other humans.<<

I am sure that you would have felt the same way about your slaves too, had you lived in those times.

Here are some excerpts from a pamphlet by Theodore Weld, talking about slaveowners' attitudes in 1839.

http://chnm.gmu.edu/exploring/19thcentury/debateoverslavery/pop_weld.html

"Suppose I should seize you, rob you of your liberty... would that be justice and kindness, or monstrous injustice and cruelty? Now, every body knows that the slaveholders do these things... yet it is stoutly affirmed that they treat them well and kindly... We shall go into no metaphysics to show the absurdity of this pretence"

"slaveholders talk of treating men well, and yet not only rob them of all they get, and as fast as they get it, but rob them of themselves, also; their very hands and feet, all their muscles, and limbs, and senses, their bodies and minds... and yet they, who plunder them of all these, would fain make us believe that their soft hearts ooze out so lovingly toward their slaves that they always keep them well housed and well clad, never push them too hard in the field, never make their dear backs smart, nor let their dear stomachs get empty."

"Slaveholders, the world over, have sung the praises of their tender mercies towards their slaves. Even the wretches that plied the African slave trade... published pamphlets, setting forth the accommodations of the “middle passage,” and their kind attentions to the comfort of those whom they had stolen from their homes"

Sounds remarkably close to the pet-lover's apologetic to me.

>>And how disturbing to read of Pericle's post which reveals the arrogance of humans who believe they have the right to dictate the fate (extinction) of other species<<

That's pure invention, Protagoras. There is nothing in my anti-animal-slavery stance that leads to extinction.

Nice try though.
Posted by Pericles, Friday, 3 April 2009 1:25:54 PM
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