Yes, PETA can be extreme, but they aren't always wrong. In fact, I agree with them on their stance about fur (but that is another subject).
After reading this article
http://www.fortunecity.com/greenfiel...e/816/id30.htm
I have pretty much decided to never have a dogs tail docked.
This part really got to me:
Tail docking involves the removal of all or part of the tail using cutting or crushing instruments. Muscles, tendons, 4 to 7 pairs of nerves and sometimes bone or cartilage are severed. The initial pain from the direct injury to the nervous system would be intense and at a level that would not be permitted to be inflicted on humans. The subsequent tissue injury and inflammation, especially if the tail is left to heal as an open would will produce the algogenic substances (Pain killing), the 'sensitising soup' and the 'dorsal horn wind up' required for peripheral and central sensitisation and the development of ongoing pathological pain.
Puppies are usually subjected to this pain and trauma at 2 to 5 days of age when the level of pain would be much greater than an adult would experience because the efferent stimuli reaching the dorsal horn from a greater density of sensitised cutaneous nociceptors will exceed that of the adult and the strength and frequency of painful stimuli reaching the brain will be greater because inhibitory pain pathways will not be developed.
The whimpering and the 'escape response' (continual movements) exhibited by most puppies following tail docking, are evidence that they are feeling substantial pain. Animals tend to be more stoic than humans due to an inherent preservation instinct. Because some puppies do not show signs of intense suffering it does not mean that the pain inflicted on them has not registered in their central nervous system. Cosmetic tail docking is most often performed without any anesthesia or analgesia and only manual restraint is used.