Comment to 'To Crop or Not to Crop?'
  • I try to be active in animal rights communities, and contrary to what most animal rights activists say, I don't see major problems with ear cropping as long as done by experienced vets and handled with care by owner after. but on the other side, I have volunteered for SPCA, and in my first day, I encountered a dog whose ears had been cut off with sizzors by previous owner, and it wasn't even a breed that had ear crop standard. this angers me beyond recognition. I feel that glamorization of ear cropping can lead to incidents such as this. Plus, in my opinion I only think a few dogs look funny without thier ears cropped; such as the Doberman, Cane Corso, Neo, but dogs like the pit, boxers, even banddogs look way better with their ears, it makes thier head look bigger and gives them character, keeping it all natural. take an excellent boxer with big head, when they clip ears all narrow, like AKC standard, it makes them look pin headed, smaller than reality. As far as pain, I am sure it is very uncomfortable for dog after surgery, easy to get infected, and some owners may neglect wounds. But this is like human foreskin removed and such. Its important to remember that many breeds had thier ears clipped for dog fighting, and caried on down lines for superficial reasons. I know clipped ears can make dog look more intense, although I personally disagree. And lastly, dogs ears flop over to protect from ear infection, and true, all ears, clipped or not should be cleaned, but I think it is important to keep all bodies as natural as possible. just my opinion. :D