DON’T CUT YOUR DOG!

DON’T CUT YOUR DOG’S EARS OMMUNICATING -

CDogs use their ears to help us, and other animals, understand how they’re feeling. Without their ears, dogs have fewer ways of communicating with us.

Body language - Where a dog’s ears are placed, also known as their ear carriage, can help us understand if a dog is worried or happy and relaxed. If a dog’s ears have been removed, it can be more difficult to know how they’re feeling.

Ear cropping is painful and completely unnecessary. Despite what some breeders will claim, cropping a dog’s ears does not benefit them in any way. It can be detrimental to their health, behaviour and welfare in the short-term and in the long-term. Cutting a dogs’ ears is barbarous torture that leaves infection and flyblown sores.

Cutting off the tops of your dogs’ ears will NOT release the headache. If the dog is ill, take it to a vet for diagnosis and treatment

DON’T CUT YOUR DOG’S TONGUE

That is NOT a worm under your dog’s tongue. It is connecting tissue called the frenulum and is exactly the same as yours. If you cut your frenulum, you will be in danger of serious infection and will not be able to speak, eat or swallow properly. The same for your dog. Many dogs have bled to death from this cruel treatment.

DON’T CUT YOUR DOG’S TAIL

It serves no purpose but is extremely cruel. It is equivalent to cutting off your arm. If a tail was not naturally useful to a dog, they would not have tails. Tails are for balance (therefore, a racing dog is at a great disadvantage without a rudder for balance) and communication. A docked dog is handicapped in expressing itself through body language to convey fear, aggression, and playfulness and so on. Dogs with no tails get into more fights because other dogs misinterpret their mood.

It is excruciatingly painful. The tail is amputated with scissors, a knife or a rubber band. This procedure is usually performed without any Anaesthetic at between three to five days of age. The puppy has a fully developed nervous system and a well-developed sense of pain. During docking puppies whimper and scream, their heartbeat and rate of breathing increase – all symptoms of pain.

The cut goes through many highly sensitive nerves in skin, cartilage, and bone. During banding, the puppy suffers continual agony and increasing fear and suffering for several days, often leading to severe infection and sometimes death, without respite or comfort. One puppy that was handed – too late – to SAWS was in such

If a dog’s ears have been removed, it can be more difficult to know how they’re feeling.

agony that it tried to push the pain away, resulting in rectal prolapse. It died. They also die of infection. Who would do that to a baby?

Human babies traumatised at a very young age have not yet developed coping skills to understand or deal with physical pain. They develop fear and distrust which can turn into behavioural disorders in later life. Puppies exposed to the torture of docking suffer similar damage.

It causes problems in later life. As with amputated limbs in humans, nerve tissue scar in the tail stump may be painful. Often dogs with docked tails develop curvature of the lower spine and other postural deformities due to the protracted pain they experienced at a time of explosive growth. Also their growth rates are slower, probably due to shock and trauma.

It is not natural. Rarely inbreeding or some other genetic abnormality will produce a dog with a short tail. But no breed of dog is born with a naturally docked tail. The fact that docked tails do not occur naturally tells us - nature doesn’t like it! Never buy or accept as a gift of a dog with a docked tail. We do not have the right to mutilate an animal’s body. It is inhumane and goes against the laws of creation/evolution. Let’s leave behind mediaeval practices and celebrate dogs the way nature intended.

It is illegal: Docking is now illegal in many countries and carries a hefty fine or jail sentence of up to one year. Show animals are not allowed to have docked tails. It was banned in South Africa in 2007.

Swaziland Animal Welfare Society (SAWS) For a dewormed, sterilised and vaccinated phone

Mbabane: 7683 8736

Manzini: 2505 6231.

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