Working-dog owners outraged at complete ban on tail docking

[mrsgrubby]

I just don't "get it". How is this a government issue? If Novel or I or anyone else get a dog and want to have it's tail docked at birth (when it doesn't hurt) let us. If you don't want your dogs tail docked, then that is fine too. But let us all decided what we want, without imposing more rules on us.

We ride horses with bits in their mouth and some people still use spurs while riding, bulls commonly have a ring in their nose still and get their horns cut off, is the government going to regulate all that too?

If they want to get invovled in the animal world than they should track down dog fighters, cock fighters, puppy mills and the such.

I just don't understand why this is an issue for the govt to decide.

[Carrie]

I just don't "get it". How is this a government issue? If Novel or I or anyone else get a dog and want to have it's tail docked at birth (when it doesn't hurt) let us. If you don't want your dogs tail docked, then that is fine too. But let us all decided what we want, without imposing more rules on us.

We ride horses with bits in their mouth and some people still use spurs while riding, bulls commonly have a ring in their nose still and get their horns cut off, is the government going to regulate all that too?

If they want to get invovled in the animal world than they should track down dog fighters, cock fighters, puppy mills and the such.

I just don't understand why this is an issue for the govt to decide.

Exactly. Your post gets points from me!

Why does the government have to decide? Because citizens are being conditioned to become more and more tolerant of being controlled and letting a few people in charge have at it....do anything they like, decide what the masses can do in their day to day lives which have nothing to do with a government issue. And what's worse, the people deciding don't know what the heck they're talking about.

[Novel]

Originally Posted by DFrost

I am a police officer and a trainer of police dogs. In my 40 years as a trainer for police dogs, I can count the number of tails that had to be docked for health reasons on both hands. The number of dogs I've worked, trained and worked with goes well into the thousands. Surgery on a dog is either for health concerns or cosmetic. I just don't think too many dogs are suffering from low self esteem needing cosmetic surgery.

DFrost

I think that police dog work may be just a tad different than running in the field for 8 hours at a time. The wear and rash that is on the chest and belly are raw enough without adding in the damage to the tail. Put a "pointing" labrador and a Weim or GSH in the field all day and see who comes out worse for the wear on their tail. We're talking about minimizing damage, or even eliminating it on a what could be daily or weekly basis. And again, you admit that even the breed you work with in that field have had injuries to tails. Do you think that the injury at that point in life was the same as the injury to a docked tail at 48 hours of age? Any pain, discomfort or recovery differences??

[DFrost]

<<<<you admit that even the breed you work with in that field have had injuries to tails.>>>>

Eight out of 4 thousand is not what I call a significant number. We work our dogs in the field as well. The bloodhounds do mostly rural tracking, talk about a tail and ears. I still don't understand how docking the tail and ears would prevent a rash on the dogs chest. Even having said all that, I was purely responding to a post that specifically mentioned police dogs. I still stand by my original statement. Surgery is either for health reasons or cosmetics.

DFrost

[Novel]

A vest can protect a dog's chest, but I've yet to see any tail coverings out there.

Yes, bloodhounds are used in the field for tracking, and I admit, I have only a rudimentary knowledge of what that entails, but is it running in tall grass for hours at a time?

And, I see docking as falling into both realms, for health reasons, as well as cosmetic. That is my opinion, Thank God I live in a country where that still counts for something

[Carrie]

Tails come in all shapes, sizes and fur content. LOL. Some dogs with long, thin, whip-like tails are much more prone to fracture than say, a GSD with lots of thick hair. Take Dobermans for instance. I'd much rather prevent even a small chance of my Doberman's tail getting smacked too hard or closed in a swinging door by docking, when it's done before the brain and spinal cord can receive or transmit the message that there is pain..... than having even a small chance of fracture and terrific pain when he's an adult. This is the fact of the anatomy and physiology of the central nervous system. This is not something that pro-dockers are making up and it is certainly nothing that a non-dog-involved and uninformed government has any business sticking their noses into.