Quote:
Originally Posted by JenniferLeigh  No but you can't compare the two. A knee is a little more important than a tail. http://www.k9alliance.com/resources/...-FactSheet.pdf
I would rather crop my doberman's tail at birth than risk a tail injury. If an injury does occur, and the tail needs to be docked. It would cause much more pain and discomfort for the animal. |
Thanks for posting this links, I've read statistics before, but didn't save anything. According to the link you cited:
Since docking was banned in Sweden in 1989, there has been a massive increase in tail injuries amongst previously docked breeds. Within the 50 undocked Pointer litters registered in that year with the Swedish Kennel Club,
38% of dogs suffered tail injury before they were 18 months old and two years later,
by 1991, the number of individuals with tail injuries had increased to 51% in the same group (Gunilla Strejffert, Report to the Swedish Breed Council for German Shorthaired Pointers, 1992, Borlange, Sweden). Even more alarming is the finding that
only 16% of injury cases had improved, 40% showed no improvement and more than half of dogs with tail injuries had regressed during the two-year period
It takes a while to gather statistics, and it has to be done by someone who cares about the breed, so it's not unusual for studies to be done by people who may appear to have a "special interest" in the cause. I mean if the YTCA does a study on injuries, does it automatically mean that the study is tainted? I do believe that that are members of the YTCA whose only interest is the future of the breed. Changes in standard should NOT even considered until we know the safety of the issue. SAFETY and health should be the number one area of concern.
I haven't read up on the issues of ear cropping, it's one of those things, I've just been automatically against, just because I read a little about it, and it grosses me out. However, I do know that perky ear dogs have WAY less ear infections, than long ear dogs, and things like that should be factored into the decision when about ear docking. Is this a breed who spends much time in the water? I won't comment any more on ear docking because it turns my stomach, I just think that people who study these things should make the decisions, not the average pet owner, unless they truly are studying all the information available, and really do have the dog's best interest at heart.