Gunny here.
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I’ve been doing a little relaxing, visiting with my dog and cat friends, and catching up on my research. I like to watch YouTube videos about history and the origin of things when I’m not visiting friends.
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A friend recently asked me about what I might gently call “surgical beautification.” A more accurate term for this practice is amputation.
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What am I talking about?
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- Docking tails
- Cropping ears
- Removing dew claws
- And even declawing in my cat friends
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A recent YouTube binge revealed (to me) that some dog breeds have been around for almost 1500 years! (Like the beagle!) A beagle is a very pure dog. Humans don’t really change or interfere with their body parts very much.
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But I have some pack members who are Yorkshire terriers. Dawg! You should see what these pups went through as three day old infants. They had their tails cut and their dewclaws removed. Without anesthesia. Some human says they can’t remember it and they can’t feel it. I don’t know. I was in the room when they got their tails amputated and declaws removed. The whole litter screamed bloody murder. What I saw on YouTube is that this has been deemed the “breed standard“ for Yorkshire terriers.
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And what about Dobermans? Some Pitbulls and mastiffs? Why do they have to have their ears cut off? Trust me, I’ve met Dobermans with pointy ears, and Dobermans with floppy ears, they are the same.
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Rottweilers with and without a tail? OK sure the Rottweiler with a tail can clean the coffee table off, but that’s the only difference.
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What am I trying to say?
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According to those history videos, this has just been for the convenience of the human. Some human decided it made Dobermans look more ferocious to have pointy ears. Sure. Maybe a little. But trust me, they can bite just as hard whether their ears stand tall or flop around a bit. I’ve tested them. (Some might call it poking the bear, I call it nosing the Dobie. Kinda fun on a slow day.)
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My Yorkie friends will go down a rat hole regardless of whether or not they have a tail and I honestly think they’d do a better job catching a rat if they had their dew claws.
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Bottomline: it was for some human’s convenience that they mutilate my dog friends. Even YouTube confirms this.
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Do you know what else YouTube confirms? It’s becoming less and less accepted in the humane treatment of animals world to cut off body parts. The new thinking is this: Unless there’s a medical reason, why amputate animals’ body parts?
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Tails are awesome things. They communicate so much.
Ears do too.
Dewclaws? Aka thumbs? I wouldn’t cut yours off. Why would you cut mine off?
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I have a few dog friends who actually have dew claws on their back feet. The justification for this? Some silly fear that they’re gonna get that back toe stuck in something and get it ripped off. Seriously? Is that how people justify amputating toes?
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I’m just gonna put it in perspective that you humans can understand. I’ve seen you humans smash the ever loving you-know-what out of your pinky toe on the coffee table. Why don’t you just amputate it in infancy so that you don’t smash it when you are an adult? OK. Maybe that example was going too far. I’m a grumpy old dog, but that’s the equivalence.
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One more thing before I go… something that came up on YouTube: declawing cats!
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I can’t 100% relate to this because I’m not a cat, but I do live with a couple of cats. Trust me. They have their claws! Those things are sharp! I try not to nose the cat. Frankly, I’d rather nose the Dobie.
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But I have heard people declawing their cats. Some cats even get front and back claws removed. Look, I don’t like being scratched by the cat; but if you take away their claws you take away the nature of a cat.
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Even the cats I live with can be trained. Boy, did they get in trouble for scratching the couch. But they have this amazing rope on a stand that they go to town on – sharpening those babies.
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Fact: These aren’t just fingernails they’re losing in a declaw procedure. You are removing the last knuckle on a cat. I really think it’s for your convenience you humans. Cats are trainable. Spend a little time. Train the cat. There’s some Jackson spaceship guy who trains cats on TV. Wait. Maybe that’s not his name. Jackson Milky Way? Galaxy?
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Please think twice or more before cutting off our body parts for our so-called beautification.
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-Gunny