It's against the law to carry out this procedure yourself or to send your dog to a vet in this country or abroad to have their ears cropped. Unfortunately, it still happens. In some medical situations, vets may perform a procedure called a pinnectomy that can look like the ears have been cropped.
Many veterinary organizations, in addition to the AVMA, oppose cosmetic cropping including the American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA),13 Canadian Veterinary Medical Association (CVMA)14 and Australian Veterinary Association.
Traditional Reasons
These days, ear cropping is done for cosmetic reasons. However, the procedure used to be done for practical reasons. For example, Boxers were often used as guard dogs.
Social media is popularising this cruel trend. Dogfighters also commonly use the surgery to prevent an opponent from grabbing a dog's ears. Whatever the reason, ear-cropping is unnecessary and abusive and has no place in a humane society.
Many breeds cannot be done after 12 weeks as the ears are not likely to stand and the recovery is much more difficult.
How ear cropping is performed. Ear cropping is generally done on puppies between six and 12 weeks.
RSPCA dog welfare expert, Dr Samantha Gaines, says: Ear cropping is painful and completely unnecessary. Despite what some breeders will claim, cropping a dog's ears does not benefit them in any way. It can be detrimental to their health, behaviour and welfare in the short-term and in the long-term.
Ear cropping is considered mutilation, purely to make a dog look a certain way. It has no benefit to dogs and causes them nothing but pain and trauma. It also robs the dog of the ability to use their ears in communication, and can negatively impact their hearing.
To crop a pit bull's ears means to remove part of the dog's ear flaps. Owners did this in the past to protect the dog's ears during fights or when hunting. Today those reasons no longer pertain. Some owners think it will help prevent ear infections, but research has not supported this idea.
Animal welfare and law
It is illegal in regions of Spain and in some Canadian provinces. Ear-cropping is still widely practiced in the United States and parts of Canada, with approximately 130,000 puppies in the United States thought to have their ears cropped each year.
There are a few different ways that ear cropping can be done, but the most common involves using a scalpel. First, the area around the dog's ear is shaved so that the hair doesn't get in the way. Next, a local anesthetic is injected into the ear to numb it.
While a procedure such as this should only ever be performed by a licensed veterinarian under general anesthesia, it's not unheard of for unscrupulous breeders to crop ears at home without pain control. Most ear cropping is performed to achieve a specific appearance and is extremely uncommon in mixed-breed dogs.
It is very important to keep the incisions clean and dry. No bathing or swimming for at least two weeks. Activity restriction is recommended during the next 7-14 days. - You will needto bring your dog/puppy back for suture removal in 14 days following the procedure.
The practice of cropping the ears and tails on certain breeds of dogs goes back in history to a time when dogs were bred and used for much different purposes. Ear cropping in Great Danes began to prevent ripping and tearing when confronting wild boar during a hunt.
Ear cropping in the Doberman breed has long been routinely done to achieve a certain appearance. Ear cropping is outlawed in some countries. While this routine procedure is not banned or regulated in the United States, it is becoming more controversial.
“Is it cruel to dock a dog's tail?” YES. Dogs “talk” with their tails. They use them for balance. Tail docking is typically done when puppies are just a few days old, without anesthetics to numb the pain.
Historically, tail docking was thought to prevent rabies, strengthen the back, increase the animal's speed, and prevent injuries when ratting, fighting, and baiting. Tail docking is done in modern times either for prophylactic, therapeutic, cosmetic purposes, and/or to prevent injury.
In modern times, cropping is mainly performed for purely cosmetic reasons. Many people like the look, believing it makes the dog look fierce, or more natural (like wolves that have upright ears).
The Doberman has a wedge-shaped head and the ears may or may not be cropped. Uncropped ears naturally hang and the tail is docked. To learn more about this type of dog, check out our Doberman Pinscher Breed Guide.
Following the surgery, the ears of most breeds and most crop styles must be trained or formed to stand up; it doesn't happen naturally.
Ear cropping and tail docking is illegal in the UK unless performed by a vet for medical reasons, and is referred to as 'mutilation' under the Animal Welfare Act 2006. These practises are illegal in most European countries, including Romania and Bulgaria where some of the recent cases have been imported from.
Ear cropping is a painful mutilation that provides no benefit to the animal but is intended to give a dog a more aggressive appearance. Research into perceptions of dogs with cropped ears (and their owners) has found that both were seen as more aggressive (Mills et al.
Ideally, puppies should be between 11 and 15 weeks of age for ear cropping in most breeds. There is some breed variation and flexibility in this, so please consult with our veterinarian if you wish to have an ear crop performed on a puppy not in this age range.
A: Tail docking is painful. The intensity or duration of the pain under ideal or typical circumstances is difficult to quantify.
The price of cropping dog ears ranges from $150 to over $600. The factors that influence the price include the quality of vet, rent, staff and equipment, and the location. Some vets also charge additional costs for post-surgery medications and offer to admit the dog a day or two after the surgery.