Poor dog if he had them removed.
My view is : LEAVE THEM ALONE
They are part of the dog, and yes, they can sometimes catch, but not as painful as person inflicted de-clawing I would think.
Over here in Scotland we see it as cruelty to dock and de-claw.
I wouldn't interfere on anyone else's view as there may be reason to do this as far as they think, but personnaly I wouldn't buy a pup that they did this to....they wouldn't get the money from me.
I have bought a rehomed male though, that has no front dew-claws, but does have the back ones. They were trying to sell him as a stud, so this may have been a reason to them - so they didn't get caught during mating. The owner had bought him as a puppy from another breeder and it wasn't her who did it to him.
All my other dogs have their dew-claws front and back, and they have no problem with them at all.
I just keep them trimmed.
Hope this helps even a little.
DEBRA x x x