by Scottie Westfall

Created on: January 17, 2009

Why would you mutilate your own best friend?

I have never owned a cropped breed, unless you want to count my boxer cropping. This dog had floppy ears and a long tail, but she wasn't really a cropped breed. But I do remember the pain and bleeding associated with ear trauma, when my grandpa's beagle got her ears cut up in the thorns. I could not imagine inflincted that sort of pain on a dog, even with pain-killers. Pain-killers don't last forever, and dogs tend not to show you how much they are really suffering.

Ear cropping is the removal of part of a dog's ear. It began in livestock guardian brees where the ear cropping originally removed the entire outer ear, leaving the canal open. Supposedly, the ears were cropped to prevent wolves and other predators from having a good hold on the dog.

The logic of ear cropping assumes that livestock guardian dogs would would be in regular fights with wolves. However, a study in Minnesota showed that wolves rarely attacked livestock guardian dogs, and if the livestock guardian dog did get attacked by wolves, it would not stand really a chance, ears or no ears.

Ear cropping evolved into other breeds, including terriers and watch dogs. Terriers were supposed to have their ears cropped to keep the foxes, badgers, otters, and rats from tearning their ears off. It was pre-emptive amputation. The big guardian mastiffs, such as the Neopolitan mastiff and later the Dobermann, were also cropped to give them a fierce, almost Satanic appearance.

The ear-crops in most of these breeds, however, were left a litle long as the organized show fancy began to take off. The whole logic of keeping ears short fell flat on its face. It became a cosmetic surgery with a long and painful recovery time. Often, the ear doesn't stand as it should, and the ears must be refitted.

Further, the ear cropping procedure occurs right when dogs should be getting their main socialization period. They cannot affectively learn to relate to other dogs when they cannot play with other dogs during this time period. This differs very much from tail-docking, which is done while dogs are still in the neonatal phase.

To crop a dog's ears inhibits their movement, dogs that cannot move their ears effectively cannot communicate with other dogs. Cropping a dog's ears is the equivalent of removing a person's vocal chords or at least inhibiting his or her speaking ability.

Virtually all European countries have banned ear-cropping. The UK banned ear cropping in 1895, and all cropped breeds bred in the UK have successfully developed a floppy ear standard to the breed or, in the case of the bull terrier, they developed an erect ear carriage.

Ear cropping is an unnecessary procedure that comes from a time when we had little knowledge or concern about animal pain and suffering. It is now a practice that is done solely for cosmetic reasons. It is not a sin to want a cosmetic procedure done on a dog, but it is if the dog suffers from so much pain and bleeding as it will get if its ears are cut.

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