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Originally Posted by yorkietalkjilly  Donna, I've seen that argument too and it's still only someone's conclusions, no more weighty than any others. Most dogs in bad pain won't eat and refuse nourishment entirely and I wonder if they are materially that different as neonates. I have always read and heard that neonates studied for pain response always show the lack of any true ability to process pain response beyond the immediate acute stage due to the inability of the nervous system to carry the message and the brain to properly process it in a mammal so infantile and that endorphins aren't even that functional as infants. Probably only the heart rate, seeking of nourishment and ability to settle are the only true indicators of pain or the lack thereof and often that can be party due to the nature of the animal. When my Jilly dislocated her shoulder, I wanted pain medicine for her to bring home and the ER vet at the time refused it, saying her heart rate and respiration was entirely normal and she couldn't be in pain as dogs in bad pain had rapid heart rates and respiration. Still, since she was a full-grown dog and did have the ability to feel pain, heart rate of not, I left there with pain Rx for her. Had she been only 3 days old, I might have believed that vet. Newborn pups cannot see, hear, smell that well, regulate their body temperatures, coordinate muscles and nerves to walk, eat regular food or do many things due to lack of sophistication of those systems to process the incoming signals yet and much of their development has to continue after birth to create a functional animal. I know we circumcise boys as newborns and they get nothing for pain as they are thought too young to hurt very successfully, according to most scientific studies of newborns. |
On tail docking and pain, I trust the conclusions of the American Veterinary Medical Association and all of the other foreign Veterinary Societies who maintain that young puppies
do feel pain, and that tail docking is inhumane. I think that the only good thing about doing it when they are young is that they forget the trauma and get over it. But even so, there can still be lingering health issues. Here is a link to a blog that has a link at the end to a research article by an Australian veterinarian that is informative:
The Whole Truth About Tail Docking | The Smart Living Network
(BTW, I'm not an anti-tail-docking activist. I'm just presenting a body of evidence. My Bella had her tail docked before I got her and before I knew about the issues involved with tail docking.)