[CorkyMax]

Veterinary News Network | News Detail

[Marc]

I never quite understood the reasoning behind ear cropping.

[angiesample]

Ear cropping is stupid and unnecessary. Plus i dont even think it looks good. I love dog ears just the way they are.
Tail cropping i can understand sometimes for example: my sister in law has a dog he is a doberman/black lab mix. They found him tied to a fence at a park, so of course they adopted him, or rather he adopted them..lol. But he probably should have had his tail docked bc he has such a hard tail and he wags it against everything. So quite often he ends up breaking the skin and it bleeds everywhere. Of course hes stubborn and wont let them wrap it up, so twice now its gotten infected Poor little guy.

[Yogi]

This implant that is noted actually has been around for many years.
As for tail docking and ear cropping, these were bore out of necessity in certain breeds and in fact did and do have a valid purpose to many breeds still today.
As one who breeds Miniature Pinscher ratters the true terriers, mine are tail docked and when they go to farms to work, their ears are generally cropped. Granted, with Miniature Pinschers the cropping is done at a later date than that of the Dobe. German farmers were constantly tending to torn ears from rats and discovered that cropping them would avoid the loose tissue being a point of attack. The same for tails. A breeder and rescuer I know took in a Miniature Pinscher a few years back with a natural tail. The poor thing went on the hunt after a 3lbs Norwegian rat. The rat managed to get ahold of the tail and if she was not near by, it could have caused more serious damage than it did. She had to take a hammer and kill the rat to get it off the tail. Unfortunately the damage was so severe that the tail was amputated. What many do not understand is that in adult dogs the nerves have developed which usually start at 6 to 7 days of age. Once this happens, nerve damage done via external injury can in fact cause severe nerve damage up to the spine or in some cases cause death. Common sense is to avoid these issue initially in many breeds. There is no nerves in the tail of a 2 or 3 day old which is why tail "docking" not tail "amputation" is done at this age. The AKC via breed clubs in most cases no longer require cropping for many breeds as far as show but for those who breed for working dogs, these measures are still greatly important for the health and well being of the dog. It must be noted that there is always two sides to the story. Unfortunately city folks rarely are aware of those who live in the country where these issues are still prevalent and essential.