I found this on the website for Manchester Terriers, the breed declined badly after the ban
"In 1897 the Kennel Club banned ear cropping. This caused a notable fall in the number of Black and Tan Terriers registered for exhibition. "
Hope this helps

I'm American. It's certainly not illegal here, and I'm pretty sure it never will be. Many breeds cannot show without the proper tail docks and ear crops. Am I for it? Absolutely not. But this doesn't mean it'll change anything.

I find ear cropping and tail docking pretty ridiculous because you can easily cover up faulted tails and ears by cropping and docking.

I've seen Rottweilers with tails that look almost like Nigredo's and APBT with ears as large as his. Surely had they been docked and cropped, it would have hidden some ugly faults and poor breeding.

Same as the ridiculous hairstyles I see some dogs having in shows. I mean unless the dog is going to overheat etc. why clip their coats all weird?

I'll really never get the point. However, I don't think cropping makes dogs look meaner than usual. When done properly, the ears look like fully pricked ears, not lopsided and jagged like poorly done crops.

Very closely cropped ears, known as the battle crop are bad looking and I hate seeing it. It's notorious in fighting grade pit bulls, American Bullies, and Neapolitan Mastiffs around here.

It looks like this:



Dog has almost no ears at all... absurd IMO.

There are two Dobermans on this Moshav [not both owned by the same person] both with tails docked as close to their body as possible, and both with cropped ears.

The older one is, I believe, used as a guard dog, and on occasions it has gotten loose and races along the road like a race horse. How it has never caused an accident - yet - I do not know.

The other is still quite young although quite large now, and is owned by a man probably in his mid 20s. When I first saw it its ears were bandaged so were either cropped here or it had very recently been imported with its ears only just cropped. I do not know whether cropping is permitted here but I know that docking is.

Interesting that this thread should just come up again as late yesterday evening when Pereg had gone out for a final pee, the owner of the younger Dobe, plus two of his friends, were walking past with the dog which was not leashed. It rushed into my yard and started to attack Pereg, who was, of course, on her tether. I did my fishwife act screaming at them to get their blanking dog and it took the three of them to finally get hold of its collar and drag it away.

It was all very well him calling out "sorry, sorry" as they walked away, still dragging the dog by its collar, but the guy knows that Pereg is frequently outside and both my outside lights were on so they could see her, and yet made no attempt to leash his dog as they walked past. Probably did not even have a leash with him.

So, still no official links or confirmation that ear cropping is 'illegal' in the UK? My thoughts are that an agreement among vets not to do it is not good enough. Unless it is illegal it could result in breeders or owners attempting to do it themselves with dire results and they won't be 'breaking the law'?

Loads of bumph on Wiki (but Wiki isn't LAW) still no link to an actual law or statute banning it.

No cropping and docking would not cover up a tail or ear that is not to breed standard, an overly large ear is not going to crop well, neither is a thick tail going to dock well, they must be to standard whether they are docked or not.

A Rotties tail should have a strong tail, and undocked they will look a lot heavier than when docked, but it still must sit in the right position.

Poor breeding is poor breeding be it docked or undocked.

As for the silly clips, being the owner of a dog with a silly clip, blame the people who bred them to work as they are the ones who came up with the clip.... you will find that most breeds that have some of their coat clipped off will have the breeds history behind it.

I can think of far worse things that can happen to a dog by so called pet owners than the show owner clipping their coat.

Oh, no Malka! Is Pereg hurt? Gosh I surely hope not. Would be terrible.

My last dog Brownie did get loose once and beat up another persons tethered (chained really) dog pretty badly so this kind of hits close to home. Tethered dogs can't properly defend themselves. It's important to leash your dogs (and hold onto the leash).

Me and the dogs owner were able to finally pull Brownie off. I didn't go mumbling sorry though (like these guys did with you). I helped him check on his dog the best I could in the darkness with Brownie and promised to pay his vet bills.

Came back the next day and said I'd confirm at his vet that it was my dogs fault and everything because he said that nobody would believe my 14 year old Lab mix inflicted those injuries on his pit bull.

He still refused to take the dog to a vet, afraid they'd investigate his illegally chained dogs and put them down etc. which was most unfortunate... but I did endeavor to ensure this never happened again.

That's not true about the faults. Some of their tails are docked almost all the way off. Same with the ears. The ears are cut down to the base of their heads. That has and will hide faults in them sometimes.

The base of the Rotties tail might be correct, but I was really talking about the end of the tail and how it tapers, more than the base of the tail. Not that this is a big deal for me personally as I own mutts anyway.

I never insinuated or said that the clips did the dogs any harm or that there was anyone to "blame" for the clips. you went on that tirade yourself. I didn't even say that they all looked bad or odd. Therefore, I find this comment was completely unnecessary...

"I can think of far worse things that can happen to a dog by so called pet owners than the show owner clipping their coat. "

As for the haircuts... ummm, okay? I guess the people who bred your dog to work forced you to apply a "silly clip" to your dog? You called it silly, and not me... be sure to remember that. Perhaps they had a gun to your head? Threatened your family? Not sure what happened there...

It would seem that you are not the only one who can make rude sarcastic comments. I have no reason to argue with you, and I shall NOT be doing so this morning. Have a nice day, Jackie.

It is true, because the point I was making is that if a breeder is breeding to get the correct tail/ ear set, you would be expect they rest is going to follow.

As above bad breeding will be the cause of incorrect tail or ear sets....

I I did not say you said anything about harm....you called them ridiculous, ( another expression for silly) my point was " take it up with the those who produced the breed to work"


: "

[QUOTE=mjfromga;2782479]As for the haircuts... ummm, okay? I guess the people who bred your dog to work forced you to apply a "silly clip" to your dog? You called it silly, and not me... be sure to remember that. Perhaps they had a gun to your head? Threatened your family? Not sure what happened there... [/ quote]

No you did not say silly, those are my words, YOU called them ridiculous !!

Re-read my post, I was not referring the my breeder, but those who created the bred to work.....

And being a traditionalist, I like the traditional clip, it's the clip that personifies the breed...

I Most breeds that have " ridiculous " clips ( your words) are based on historic purpose of the breed.

When breeding dogs, particularly breeds that are traditionally docked / cropped, you have to breed accordingly.

I will use the Boxer as an example, if you look to the US boxer over the UK or some European countries , you will notice a subtle difference in tail and ear.... You can't import a UK Boxer to the US then crop the ear as the set and construction of the ear will not crop well. Same with tails , for generations the Boxer has beed bred for a docked tail, the carriage set and construction has beed bred into the breed for this purpose, now we are no longer able to dock. It is taking breeders time to tweak the tail to conform to a correct tail set that sets it off when the dog is on the move.

Which brings me right back to my original comment, docking and cropping is not going to hide conformation faults.... Bad breeding is bad breeding... Regardless of whether you chop a bit off.

Double posted

Ear Cropping & debarking was banned in the !899 UK Act that regulates Veterinary Surgeons, it isn't on the internet so you will not find it by browser search. The RCVS is the body that governs Veterinary surgeons & what they can & cannot do.

It is also covered under the 2006 Animal Welfare Act under the term-mutilation