Why Do People Cut Dogs’ Tails?
The majority of tail docking is done for appearance because it’s considered a “breed standard.” However, there are several other reasons for tail docking, including preventing:
Many breeds have their tails docked when they’re newborns, including:
Did you know there are several breeds in which puppies are born without tails, making them naturally docked breeds? Many of these are due to a genetic mutation, C189G, resulting in a naturally short tail when bred. These breeds include:
What Is The Tail Docking Procedure?
Puppy tail docking is usually performed when the puppy is only a few days old. Many vets don’t use anesthesia, even though the procedure causes pain. The rationale is that because puppies aren’t fully alert yet, they won’t remember it. However, it’s hard to imagine using this justification for humans. So, doesn’t it seem odd to consider it acceptable for animals?
There are two ways to dock a tail. The first, more common method involves severing the tail with scissors or a scalpel. The breeder or vet must cut through the muscle tissue, cartilage, spinal column, and nerve endings. The second method involves constricting the blood flow to the tail with a rubber ligature until the tail falls off, typically within a few days.
Veterinary surgeons typically don’t use sutures with this procedure, but they may be necessary for larger dogs or if the dog is experiencing excessive bleeding.
There are many issues with the practice of tail docking in dogs. In fact, many countries have banned tail docking altogether. Here in the U.S., more states regulate tail docking of horses and cattle than dogs.
Only Maryland and Pennsylvania have provisions restricting dog tail docking, but it’s still not entirely banned. In Maryland, the law states that only vets can perform the dog tail docking procedure using anesthesia and only when appropriate. Meanwhile, in Pennsylvania, the law prohibits the docking of a dog’s tail if the dog is over five days old.
Although dog tail docking is unregulated in the U.S., many veterinarians refuse to perform the procedure, including Banfield Pet Hospital locations. Below are additional concerns with the practice of docking dogs’ tails.
Dogs communicate their emotions with others through wagging their tails. So a dog with a docked tail may not be able to express feelings of anger with another dog, which could lead to unnecessary added aggression. Additionally, a dog with a docked tail may not be able to express excitement with a tail wag and have his humans fully understand what he’s trying to communicate.
The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) is a strong opponent of dog tail docking (and dog ear cropping) due to the risks associated with the procedure, which include:
Bobbed tails are naturally shortened (bobbed) tails that dogs are born with. The length of the bobbed tail can vary for each dog.
Docking is when part or all of the tail is removed from the dog. It’s typically done when dogs are only a few days old because their tails are still “soft” at this time.
If you love animals you should be. There’s no reason to defend these practices. And if you still choose to –– for whatever semi-considered reason you might still cling to –– consider the reality of these procedures: They’re most likely undertaken on an unclean table by someone with no formal education who’s using no anesthetics and hasn’t even considered the possibility that administering pain medication might be the humane thing to do.
What’s more, it’s also a safe bet that the animals who undergo these procedures are not being treated according to the high veterinary standards of care you might envision in your mind’s eye when you buy that pet shop Min-Pin. After all, when a handful of “progressive” laws have to mandate anesthesia, it’s because it’s considered common practice by some to perform these procedures without it.
New York: Ink and piercings may be all the rage, but NY says skin-deep fashion shouldn’t extend to pets. Rules there say tattooing is only allowable for ID purposes and piercing isn’t OK unless we’re talking ear-tag IDs for pet species who have normally been identified this way (rabbits and guinea pigs).
Declawing a cat requires that the first knuckle of each digit be amputated so as to remove the entirety of the claw. This procedure is most often undertaken in the front limbs of cats six months of age and younger. Despite the significant pain it elicits, declawing all four paws remains a relatively common practice in the US. (Heres a past post on this and the AVMAs policy.)
Nevertheless, I’ll be frank: It’s my take that these state laws almost uniformly suck. But not just because they hedge, waffle and prevaricate. Rather, they suck because in their embarrassing degree of equivocation and side-stepping, they testify to the presence of an insidious streak of animal treatment most of us either deny or simply don’t think about.