Luckily, Iâve never worked anywhere where Iâve been expected to perform this procedure (nor would I have were I asked to). And itâs true; requests like the one I received last week are rare enough. But uncommon or no, Iâd nonetheless welcome the addition of medically unnecessary debarking procedures to the list of inhumane practices Iâd rather see banned.
I raise this comparison not because I believe either procedure is more defensible than the other, but because Iâm always impressed by the vitriol behind debarking versus declawing. It makes no sense given the disparity in potential suffering involved.
“People have to look at it this way. If they have a dog thats digging up holes in their back yard, theyre not going to have the dogs legs amputated. We think devocalization is going to that type of extreme.”
âDebarking is considered cruel by most veterinarians and you really should start looking for a good dog trainer or behaviorist instead of a vet willing to perform a painful and unnecessary procedure. I have the name of a great trainer right here if youâre interested in doing the right thing.â
Most of us who deal in canine medicine view debarking surgery as “mutilation,” plain and simple. Thatâs why Iâve always loved Defenders of Animalsâ director Dennis Tabellaâs comments on the subject:
How much does it cost to take vocal cords out of a dog?
The simplest form of debark surgery cost from $100. The more involved surgical approach via the neck is more expensive, from around $300.
“I think it’s probably going to be a procedure that’s done by fewer and fewer veterinarians” in the coming years, said Dr. Ellison, the curriculum director at the University of Florida’s veterinary school. He said professors there do not teach the surgery, and that he has not come across recent veterinary school graduates who have studied the procedure.
“Dogs are usually barking because of some frustration,” said Dr. Louise Murray, director of medicine at the Aspca’s Bergh Memorial Animal Hospital in Manhattan. “It’s frustrating to be a sheepdog with no sheep. What I’d be concerned about is if you’re debarking a dog and it has an underlying unhappiness.”
Keeping pets in New York City, of course, has always required delicate negotiations between neighbors and species. The city’s 311 line fielded 6,622 complaints about barking dogs last year, while housing officials banned pit bulls, Rottweilers and other large dogs from public housing projects. Real estate experts say that co-op boards large and small always wrestle with pet policies, many of them tied to barking dogs.
Although there is no reliable estimate as to how many dogs have had their vocal cords cut, veterinarians and other animal experts say that dogs with no bark can readily be found but not necessarily heard in private homes, on the show-dog circuit, and even on the turf of drug dealers, who are said to prefer their attack dogs silent.
Paul usually has more than a dozen dogs at a time, many of them Shetland sheepdogs, a breed known for excessive barking. He said he has had most of them debarked, and requires his clients to debark theirs before sending them to him for dog shows. He said his dogs have lived long, happy lives, and “none of them are any sadder after being debarked.”