Is Cuttin a pitbulls ears considered as animal cruelty?

I think that originally, ears were cropped in fighting dogs because it kept the fighting dogs from having a nice floppy ear for it's opponent to latch onto. So the connotation that an ear-cropped dog is a fighting dog and therefore tough is there.
Personaly I dislike it, why mutilate your dog? I don't believe in tail cropping either...
I've seen hunting dogs with their dewclaws removed also so they don't injure them when running through brush...
My dogs are pets, I might feel different if I was hunting hogs with them....

 

me and my family (which is where i get my love of the dogs) won't do it, but if we get a pup from someone else, they sometiems do it before we get the pup. that is the case of the pup that i show... the black-brindle male w/ croped ears... the guy we got him from said he would look better w/ croped ears and my dad said that if they were cropped when he picked up the pup that was fine, but if not, then the ears were going to stay. The guy obviously went to the vet right away because when i got my pup his head was all taped up. He didn't even seem to mind it really. I don't think one way or the other really, i think it looks okay on some dogs, but really bad on others... especially when they are cut by hand or i've even seem some dogs w/ their ears cut all the way off... that really disgustes me.

 

Actually, this is a common misconception. Most of the oldtime dogfighters would've preferred the other dog to grab his dog's ear because it doing so, it opened up an even better target for his own dog. Leaving the ears natural was usually first choice.

People can debate this topic over & over, but no matter what is said, the truth remains: this is an ELECTIVE/COSMETIC surgery that carries NO health benefits whatsoever (& actually 1 negative benefit as it puts the dog under an anesthesia risk an additional time). It is done solely for the owner.

And no one should ever compare ear cropping to spaying/neutering because this is just absurdly stupid. The benefits of having a spayed/neutered dog are legit & proven:
--studies show these dogs live on average 3 yrs longer
--eleminates the risk of pyometra (unterine infection which is often fatal) in females
--drastically reduces the chance of mammary gland cancer
--eliminates the need for "doggy diapers" in females & the need to protect your household furniture from menstrual blood
--eliminates the risk of testicular cancer in males
--drasctically reduces the chance of prostate enlargement & prostate cancer in males
--eliminates the chance of unwanted & UNNEEDED pregnancies
--eliminates sexual humping (some humping is a form of dominance)
--can decrease and/or eliminate marking tendencies
--there are several others but just wanted to name a few.........

Ear cropping:
-to some people looks good
That's it.

To compare these surgeries is to basically laugh at the need to spay & neuter & sends the message that people shouldn't do it. Devin, you know first hand at the substandard/not to standard dogs produced from unknowledgable breedings and/or unintended breedings.

I do have 3 dogs with their ears cropped. All were done by a licensed practicing veterinarian. But I will never do it again. There's no reason to & those 3 dogs look worse to me than they would've had I left them natural--funky ears or not.

As for the cruelty aspect, it is against the law in every state (a felony in many) to crop your own dog's ears. Not only is it an animal cruelty charge, but also a "practicing a medical profession without a license" charge. Those people who cut their own dogs ears do not deserve to walk this earth. Why so harsh? Because those people usually don't give a damn about anything else either. So just rid the world of them. This country/world is bad enough as it is.

 

Cropping is purely cosmetic and true it serves no purpose to have them cropped other than looks. Some crops look good in my opinion such as a medium cut with a nice exterior arch. Others look crappy to me like a razor cut all the way to the skull almost. Still yet uncropped ears may not look that grand either. It all comes down to the what the owners preferance may be. I like the way that my pup held his ears untill he was about 10 weeks old and then one of his ears started to almost fold together and he looked lopsided. I elected to have his ears cropped and after speaking with several reputable vets and doing research on the net I now believe that his ears look much better than they would have. It is now part of his dynamic personality and it reminds me of his heratage and the many things that this breed has been known for in the past, the present, and to be the future. My pit didn't even act as if he was injured in any way and was just as playful when he arived home as he was pre-cropped.

 

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its not cruelty

 

Excellent post, Mia! Thanks for saying that so directly and to-the-point.

 

My two males have cropped ears. My vet did a great job and they are not too small and they stand perfect. Do I think we should have cropped them? Not really. My fiancee had his male's (the oldest) ears cropped because he liked the look. When we got our youngest together I told him to leave the ears but he wanted to crop them. Recently we talked about this subject and we agreed that it is stupid to cut them. Our dogs look good but we would have loved them the same with ears. So in the future there will be no cropping for us.

 

Big Papa I agree with you. It is not cruelty. If you like how it looks then go ahead and do it. I don't like it so I don't do it.

 

To answer this question real quick...

Legally, no not considered animal cruelty.

Morally, think of it this way.. How would you like it if I cut your ears and made you look like a damn elf?

 

This is untrue. Look at German Shepards, or any other prick eared dog.
One of the many stupid things I have heard is that cropping a dog's ears will make it go insane because the ear doesn't cover the ear canal, making everything loud, and it makes them crazy....LMAO
Same thing...Look at all the other prick eared dogs.

Probably 90% of Fighting dogs have floppy ears, because every disadvantage towards your dog is good, to show how game it is, and what it can work around.

And, probably 90% of Show dogs (UKC at least) have cropped ears. It cleans up the head, and makes them look more alert. ADBA and other shows like them uncropped, partly because ADBA isn't for looks.

Cropped ears are a messy thing to deal with, and they don't always come out perfect. Sometimes the ear just doesn't want to stand up, and sometimes, no matter how much time is spent on measuring, they can come out lopsided. It depends on the healing process. If one ear scars up more than the other, the tissue will shrink up a bit, and appear smaller.

Yes, cropped ears look cool sometimes, but it is in the best interest of the breed to not crop. They look more innocent and less like a Pit Bull to the public.

 

i do my own dogs ears, as soon as they are born.i just tie rubber bands arounf all of them at the base real tight until the ear just falls off. and then i take them to the vet for there boob jobs and lipo.

 

Nice. What vet do you take your dogs to? Mine needs to get rid of the wrinkles on his face.

 

LMAO
You know what's sad though, some dip$h!t is going to read that and think you're serious and try it. Kinda like the media's made up crap about cutting a dog's feet off below it's ankles.

 

LOL. Here's what $245 can get you from a vet in New Orleans.......

 

I've never heard that from anyone... does the media really think that people (correction... respectible people) do that to their dogs?? i honestly have never heard of anything like that.. that's horrible...

 

Poor thing looks like he's saying "Where are my ears?"

Whoever did those lost his ruler.

 

here's an of what it's suposed to look like... if you can tell.. sorry the pic is not the best quality.. it's the only one that he has his ears up in.. he puts them down for every picture i take of him.. he's just to much of a baby.

 

He's a cutie . . . bet he'd be a doll with ears. Just teasin'---He really is cute.

 

wasn't up to me.. he was like that when i got him.. luv him all the same.. pointy ears and all