Dog ear cropping and why it needs to stop
With the recent surge in demand for puppies, ear cropping appears to have become far more popular.
In case you only read 3 lines into this article it’s important to know:
Ear cropping is painful and completely unnecessary.
What is ear cropping?
It is the disgusting and painful process where a dog’s outer ears are removed completely or cut down to a different size.
Why are people cropping dogs ears?
The long and the short of it is that it’s cosmetic. It is used to make a dog look more “fierce”. Which to me is completely ridiculous.
Some breeders say that it is beneficial to a dog. This is not true. Cropping a dog’s ears can lead to health and behavioural issues both over the short term and long term.
If you feel the need to put a dog through a painful procedure just to have it look “tougher” then you don’t deserve to own a dog.
Why shouldn’t a dog have their ears cropped?
Hearing
Dog’s ears move independently of each other. This allows them to position them to help them hear as well as possible. Their ears are built to catch sound waves and funnel them into the ear drum. It’s not yet known how much ear cropping affects a dog’s hearing but it’s likely it does.
Communication
Dog’s use their ears to communicate with us, and other dogs. They can communicate joy happiness, fear and many other emotions. Without ears they have one less way to communicate.
Body Language
Removing a dog’s ears gives us fewer ways to sense how a dog is feeling. We don’t know how a dog is feeling or if they’re reacting badly to a situation.
Is it illegal?
Yes. In the UK it’s Illegal to crop your dog’s ears, allow anyone else to crop your dog’s ears or go abroad to have your dog’s ears cropped.
Why is ear cropping getting more popular?
In the last few years “celebrities” have been buying dogs with cropped ears. An example of this happened last year when Simon Davies a “celebrity” dog breeder was found to be cropping puppies ears to make them look “tougher”. He sold the puppies to people like Little Mix’s Leigh-Anne Pinnock and Geordie Shore’s Aaron Chalmers.
When influencers like this own and show off dogs with cropped ears on Instagram etc it adds to demand for puppies with cropped ears.
Simon Davies narrowly avoided jail and was banned from keeping animals for 15 years. In our opinion not a tough enough sentence. You can read more about it HERE.
Ear cropped dogs are also being used within more advertisements and on clothing which is also helping to normalise it.
The RSPCA have seen over a 200% increase in reports of ear cropping over the last 5 years. The good news is with more celebrities being made aware of the issue the more they are supporting stricter laws on ear cropping including a ban in importing dogs with cropped ears.
Ricky Gervais is supporting a petition on strengthening the law saying “It’s barbaric. It causes dogs so much suffering and is unnecessary. To think anyone would do this just for image is disgusting.”
What can we do about it?
If you see any dog with cropped ears or someone selling a dog or puppy with cropped ears report it to the RSPCA HERE.
Please also feel free to share this article to help build awareness.
Originally published at https://www.mypethq.io on March 27, 2021.
