Oh, My Ears & Tail
by junglejim

When I was much younger, there was a television show that had two Doberman Pinschers that acted as guard dogs. They were lovely sleek, muscular animals with ears that stood straight up.

Years later, seeing a picture in a book of a Doberman Pinscher with ears that were hanging down like a retriever’s, I wondered at the difference. I wondered the same thing about Boxers and Great Danes.

When I discovered the answer to this difference, I was horrified. When these dogs are puppies, part of their ear flaps are cut away, and the remaining part is set up in splints to make them stand up. Please don’t say it doesn’t hurt, because that’s nonsense.

America prides itself on its attitude towards nature. We love to protect the environment, and we boast of our policies against cruelty to animals. We’re so kind to animals, we’ve made it illegal to kill a rat or shoot a wild animal that gets into our own house and threatens us or our pets.

It is acceptable, however, to subject puppies to having half of their ears chopped off or most or all of their tails chopped off.

And why? Have you wondered why?

The answer: Looks. Solely and only cosmetic reasons , the human obsession. Human vanity. There are those who believe a dog such as a Doberman looks more fierce with ears that stand up or that a dog looks ’cute’ with a shorter or no tail.

Get this straight. A dog does not become more fierce, personable, obedient, intelligent, attractive or cute because you chop off his ears or his tail. Pardon me, let me use the correct and euphemistic terms of ear ’cropping’ and tail ’docking’.

The practice of cropping the ears and docking the tails of dogs has long been outlawed in the UK. The UKC (United Kennel Club) won’t allow it. Why then, is America still so bound to this barbaric, cruel and totally unnecessary practice?

The AKC (American Kennel Club) will not allow dogs to be shown who have had surgery, even basic surgery such as spaying and neutering which is helpful to the dog overpopulation problem. (Yes, I know, if they’re spayed or neutered they can’t breed, which is what the AKC is about. That may be fine for conformation, but why should surgery of any sort exclude any dog with AKC ancestry from the obedience ring?)

Counter to this, the AKC allows and implicitly condones the mutilation of dogs’s ears and tails. It seems that chopping off parts of a dogs anatomy, as long as you confine it to ears and tails, is not a surgical procedure.

If you really want to be able to say that America is kind to animals, this practice must cease. It should be illegal to mutilate animals in this way, especially a domestic animal like the dog, the creature that returns the most in loyalty and affection to humans.

If you want a dog with ears that stand up or an abbreviated tail, get one that God made that way. Stop inflicting unnecessary cruelty upon dogs.