Its about time! Ear cropping.

[stangs]

I have finally had a quick look Stangs, I haven't gone through all my books but found the following reference to cropping or cutting of the ears of horses in 'A Compendium of Veterinary Art' by James White, 1825 (London):

'The ear is enclosed by a pair of clams, which is so inclined as to give the ear the form required. All that part of the ear without the clam is cut off by one sweep of a keen knife; no dressing is necessary after the operation, and the horse may be turned to grass until the ears get well. If the flies are troublesome apply some train oil with a little tar dissolved in it.'

It looks as though by this point (1825) ear cropping was becoming less common, whereas tail docking and nicking were still widely practiced in horses in England.

Sorry OP for the thread diversion!

Thank you, I appreciate it. Glad we’ve long stopped doing this to horses.

 

[GSD Woman]

I thought of the dog cropping and docking a few days ago when the Doberman snobs were attacking a picture of a friend's natural Dobe. The picture was on a flyer for a cardiac clinic.
When I mentioned cropped and docked dogs can't show or do sports in the UK, Europe or Australia (I hope I was correct on that part) I was told the crop and dock people don't care about showing there. I'm shocked. I know people who used to send dogs to Germany for titling. Shows the difference in the 2 breeds here.

 

[blackcob]

(I hope I was correct on that part)

In the UK - cropped dogs aren't eligible to compete at any KC licensed event. Docked-but-not-also-cropped dogs may not be exhibited at events to which the public pay an entry fee (which is usually only Crufts and LKA, off the top of my head).

I did do a bit of a double take at the catalogue and entry banners at Blackpool show a few weeks back which had a cropped dog as part of a collage - I can only assume it was designed by a non dog show person!

 

[GSD Woman]

Docked-but-not-also-cropped dogs may not be exhibited at events to which the public pay an entry fee (which is usually only Crufts and LKA, off the top of my head).

Don't you have to qualify for Crufts by winning at other shows? So wouldn't that leave out docked dogs?

 

[blackcob]

Yup, you can technically qualify but not be eligible to exhibit - this was before I was really in to showing but IIRC there was a 'docked and denied' campaign about this issue back in the day.

Some agility handlers have also been caught out in years past when world and European competitions have been held in countries where docked dogs may not compete.

 

[SilverLinings]

IME quite a few local/family dog shows (unaffiliated, run by a local club or as a fundraiser for a village fete or charity etc) don't allow docked dogs to compete. This seemed to be more common about 10+yrs ago when there seemed to still be a fair few docked 'pet' dogs around, but you still see it on some schedules. At the time I took my nervous young dog to a few to build up her confidence and I often had to leave my older dog with my parents for the day as she was docked (she was docked when it was still allowed for pet dogs, and was the 'standard' for cocker spaniels).

I haven't seen any rules at these type of shows about ear cropping, but I live in the countryside and haven't come across any cropped dogs in this area (have seen them in cities like London and Bristol etc when there for work). TBH where I live there are very few of the breeds of dogs that seem to attract illegal ear cropping, just the odd staffie (with natural ears).

 

[GSD Woman]

I wish the AKC would get off it's butt and make breed club change their standards to bar cropping and docking. Of course there would need to be a grandfathered in clause but it would make a difference. Probably small though, because JQP is going to do what he wants.

 

[skinnydipper]

Moved to new thread