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Location: Germany/US
Joined: Apr 2006
Posts: 375
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After reading this link, and the first paragraph:
MPs have voted to ban the docking of dogs' tails - but with an exemption for working dogs, such as those used by the police, Army or rescue services.
Does this mean that GSD's, Malanois, Golden Retreivers, Beagles (I could go on)....will now be getting their tails docked also? All those breeds are used for these services and seem to do their job very well with all their body parts intact. What makes Dobies, Rotts etc more at risk to damage their tails?
Dont take this the wrong way, I do understand the thought behind it, Ive been a part of surgical procedures to remove tails on dogs, mostly hunting dogs (sports) that with going through a lot of dense 'brush' have damaged their tails and they are not the easiest wounds to have heal up, they bleed a lot and it doesnt take much to re-open even sutured wounds because of the 'wagging effect', the sometimes rapid movement itself or banging it into things often causes further damage.
I had a Rottwieller, her tail was already docked when I got her, I will admit that she looked good without it, I like the way they look without, Dobies too, I dont have her any more but I have every intention of getting another Rott at some point. As much as I do like the look though I'd prefer the next one has its tail, my preference in the way a dog looks isnt a good enough reason to amputate a dogs body part. If youve ever been the one to hold a 2 or 3 day old puppy down while someone cuts its tail off....you never really forget the screams.
That said, Ive never seen any evidence that docking causes spinal injuries, (or not docking causing spinal injuries), or that the dog remembers it, I go by say...a dog that has a bad ear infection or torn nail, even long after they have recovered from the problem theyre usually never quite the same afterwards if you go near the ears or nails.
Im just a little disheartened about this, I thought tail docking had already been banned in UK a few years back. In California they are still docking tails, doesnt have to be a breeder or vet, a breeder can have anyone do it, theyre still cropping ears, if they cant afford a vet to do some will just take a good pair of scissors and hack the ears off themselves, mostly with Pit Bulls although I do remember a Miniature Schnauzer that had 'apparantly' struggled when the owner thought he'd give it a go at home, no anaesthetic, the dog ended up with virtually no ear on one side....theyre also still declawing cats.
I did manage to stop one vet from cropping ears though, took me 2 years of basically harrassing him over it....he comes in one day after a management meeting and tells me "you'll be pleased to know that I am no longer cropping ears any more", I was pretty impressed with him as a fair percent of his work involved this procedure....he just had never really thought about the stress that some breeds in particular go through for what can be up to 4-6 months.