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Originally Posted by concretegurl  |
I had to chuckle at the first link bc of the irony of how they "do it to avoid tail damage" - ! Um, so they do themselves exactly what they purport they're trying to prevent. That really strikes my irony funny bone a bit
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I read the stats, but I'd want to know the details of those stats rather than take them at face value. Meaning, what kind of injuries were sustained...a nick / a cut / a break / a what? Statistics can be manipulated to mean anything, so the details of the stats are very important.
This part, though, actually made me toss the whole organization out on its butt:
2. For reasons of hygiene
Long haired, thick coated breeds like the Yorkshire Terrier and Old English Sheepdog are docked to avoid the hair around the base of the tail becoming fouled by faeces. Even with constant grooming and washing, such fouling is unpleasant. If allowed to get out of hand, it can lead to severe problems of hygiene, or even flystrike and subsequent infestation by maggots. Hygiene problems can be greatly reduced or eliminated altogether by docking.
If a person is going to use POOP in the fur as an excuse or recommendation to amputate a tail, then that makes the whole thing 100x more suspect to me. I'm sorry but a dog owner can and should take care of *any* breed's bum area (tail or no tail) to avoid draggers or whatnot. Pfeiffer has a full tail, Marcel and Wylie are docked...and guess what...Pfeiffer actually has the LEAST incidence of ever having a poop-in-fur prob.
--That 2nd link is amazing read - so I posted it almost in its entirety. Very thorough article, thanks for sharing it!
