Some Dog Stuff
This is odd:
New York’s highest court has heard arguments in the case of a man who has refused to cut his dog’s tail for national competitions.
Manhattan dog owner John Hammer wants the Court of Appeals to reinstate his suit against the American Kennel Club and the American Brittany Club which seeks to bar them from enforcing a 1926 breed standard for judging spaniels that takes points off for dogs with tails longer than four inches (10 cm).
Hammer contends that the “docked-tail” standard violates state law against intentionally injuring an animal and constitutes illegal discrimination because his dog’s tail is 10 inches (25 cm). Lower courts have dismissed his complaints.
“These organisations encourage you to be cruel to animals and they punish you if you aren’t,” Hammer’s attorney, Joseph Foley, told the six-judge panel.
The AKC is a club and can set whatever standards for showmanship it wants. As for me, my opinion on docking and cropping ears and tails is that it’s unnecessary. Dogs have ears and tails for a reason. Tail docking is usually done a few hours after birth (most breeders do it immediately) and heals pretty quickly. Plus, some folks say, the little pups don’t have fully formed nervous systems so pain is minimal.
Cropping ears has to be done when the dog is older. It’s painful and they have to wear that cup on their heads. My parents had a Doberman when I was young and he had his ears cropped. He was running down the steps when the cup slipped over his eyes, which caused him to fall down the stairs. No harm done, but just awkward.
And large dogs that have their tails cropped are sort of funny. Ever seen an excited boxer? They have no tail to wag so they wag their whole butt.
I like my dogs natural. No cropping or docking for me. Of course, I don’t even register my dogs. But then, I don’t show them either.
Update: One more thing, ear and tail cropping has their origins in dog fighting. They’d crop them so that the opposing dog would have less to grab hold of. It has horrific origins.
November 20th, 2003 at 9:57 am
You don’t want to name your dog AKC Atticus’s Johnny-Boy Bubba Max Ukelele Poser Dudley Do-Right Jupiter American Illusion’s Kyle McLaughlin Radar Range?
November 20th, 2003 at 12:03 pm
Cropping and docking is illegal in England if I’m not mistaken. AKC ought to remove it from all breed standards, and really it ought to be outlawed here. The only practical excuse for docking I’ve ever heard involves hunting dogs that work in dense brush whose tails can get get caught or snagged in briars and brambles causing painful injuries. These aren’t typically show dogs, though.
November 20th, 2003 at 12:22 pm
I would tend to agree. Ear and tail cropping has it’s origins in dog fighting. They’d crop them so that the opposing dog would have less to grab hold of. It has horrific origins.
November 20th, 2003 at 7:23 pm
My Jacks had their tails cropped when they were pups. Supposedly their tails should be no longer than a mans fist (Jacks and other terriers burrowed down rather deep going after god knows what…fox/moles/rats/….and would/could get stuck). Instead of grabbing a small “not so bony”(sp?)part and breaking off half of the poor dogs tail to yank them out they cropped them so that they would have some “meat” to hang on to when/if they had to yank them out of a burrow in a hurry.