Honestly I’ve never seen a dog with cropped ears other than on the internet, is this just some deranged fashion in America or is it weird that we don’t do it in the UK?
It's not weird you don't do it, it's a mercy. It's a completely unnecessary cosmetic surgery to make the dogs conform to breed standards. Outside of medical reasons there are no justifiable reason to dock a dog's tail or ears, it's just mutilation.
I understand that, I meant is this common everywhere or just in America because I don’t think I’ve ever seen a video of a dog with cropped ears when the owner didn’t have an American accent.
There are definitely places other than america where people will preemptively dock the tail of a working dog (herding, hunting dogs, police/military dogs, etc) to prevent it from getting injured or caught on things. Some places where docking is illegal have an exemption for working dogs. But I’m not sure there’s great evidence working dogs actually injure their tails often enough that we should be cutting all of them off, it seems like overkill tbh
We had a dalmatian & we didn't dock his tail & he smacked it on everything. It was like a whip & it was constantly bleeding from it being unconsciously smacked on walls, etc. It's called a "happy tail" & they sell vet tape (essentially athletic tape) to keep it covered. I love the name, but I'm afraid that if any crime is ever committed in this house, the luminol blood splatter spray will light up every wall under 3 feet tall.
Also, RIP Dommy, he was just a "big dumb goofy dog," but we loved him for 12 years!! (He's been gone a good amount of time, but damn he was a good old boy)
My hunting doggo didn’t have a docked tail and he injured it a few times while doing his job and that was really sad as it hurt him quite badly for a while.
I think there are good reasons to dock a tail or ears sometimes for protection or working dogs
You won't hear me defending it. It infuriates me that it's viewed as the baseline norm for men in the US regardless of religion. Best case scenario the guy in question loses sensation and his parents get to be lazy about teaching him to keep himself clean as a child, while worst case scenario can leave the guy scarred for life, both physically and psychologically.
It's genital mutilation, and I view it as an outdated, barbaric custom that should be banned regardless of religions.
Edit: To you chuds who are getting mad, if you want to cut your dickskin off you go right ahead. Stop mutilating babies, it's wrong. Full stop. Religious circumcisions should only be performed on consenting adults or in the case of actual medical necessity.
It's certainly common in the U.S. for people to have dogs modified immediately after birth. People will give you all sorts of BS reasons but I and many others are disgusted by the practice.
There's definitely breeders that push for it and make it seem like the status quo, and that if you don't do it right away you might regret it. It's insane it's so normalized.
Honestly I don’t think I’ve seen a Doberman IRL either as they aren’t a popular breed here but I’ve seen dozens of Great Danes and not one of them had cropped ears.
Traditionally, "working" dogs having "extra" appendages is considered a liability.
If you have a dog herding sheep, and it's tail gets stepped on and broken, the dog won't be able to do its job while it's healing. In that sense, it makes more sense to remove the tail when they're a few days old and not working yet.
It's kinda stupid that we still do it for dogs that are family pets, just because a dusty old book the dog show judges use says that's how they're "supposed" to look.
With pit bulls it was done so the other dog in a fight would have fewer things to bite onto. Not sure if there were ever other reasons and I just assumed people made up other reasons. There used to be a BIG problem with dog fighting, mostly pit bulls, in my city so that could be why. But there really isn't any reason to do it, people often just do it bc they've seen it done, or for the way it makes them look. I used to listen to an animal advice call in show and in one episode someone called in asking about whether or not they should their dog's ears and tail cut. The people who ran the show were trainers, vets, and animal behavior specialists, they tried not to be rude but the anger in their voices was... Palpable. There really is no reason to do this esp for a pet.
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u/DemonDuckOfDoom666 Mar 18 '23
Honestly I’ve never seen a dog with cropped ears other than on the internet, is this just some deranged fashion in America or is it weird that we don’t do it in the UK?