1/6/2024 0 Comments Pit bull ears cliptThe high prevalence of dogs with cropped ears can make the look seem normal. The KC have banned competing dogs with cropped ears – but you have to dig into the small print to find this! Social media, as it often does, worsens this trend further. Dobermanns do not often have erect ears without being cropped, so this statement could be interpreted as saying that cropped ears are acceptable. This can be made worse as some official breed standards are not unclear if some ears should be ‘upright’ an example of this is The Kennel Club (KC) website, which states that Dobermanns should have ears that are “normally dropped, but may be erect”. Many people like the look, believing it makes the dog look fierce, or more natural (like wolves that have upright ears). In modern times, cropping is mainly performed for purely cosmetic reasons. Cropping was normally carried out on very young puppies by their owner with shears, using no pain relief. There was also a belief that dogs with cropped ears could hear better, as they could more easily swivel their ears in the direction of sound, versus uncropped normal ears. As many dogs back then were hunting dogs or sheepherders, there was some evidence this was correct. The practice has been performed since ancient times for a number of reasons – there was a belief (which is not unfounded) that long hanging ears are more likely to get ear infections, become damaged or swell with blood. Do note that some breeds have naturally upright ears like huskies, German shepherds, westies and corgis. Breeds where cropping is prevalent are Dobermanns, American bullies, pitbulls, Staffordshire bull terriers and other similar breeds. What is ear cropping? Why is it such an issue? And how, despite being illegal, is this still an issue you should be concerned about? What is Ear Cropping?Įar cropping is the act of removing part (or sometimes all) of a dog’s ears, and is often followed by taping the remaining ear upright so that it heals vertically, giving the ears an upright triangular appearance, rather than the hanging-down floppy ears of most dogs. We are talking, of course, about cropped ears. Yet we may walk past a dog like this every day, follow them on social media or even own one. Therefore, most of us would rightly be angry knowing that dogs are having essential parts of their bodies removed for cosmetic reasons. We can all agree that we are a nation of animal lovers.
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