[yorkietalkjilly]

Here's another side of the story, though both sides feel strongly about their own causes or horrors dogs suffer at the hands of people.

As most canine neonates are born still developing, unseeing, unhearing and with under-developed neurological, musculoskeletal, gastrointestinal systems and are still in very early development stages at the time they are docked/declawed, their brain-function and bodily functions are so rudimentary at that point all they can't feel much pain, walk, eat/process food or poop on their own. All they can do is sleep, vocalize, crawl short distances to teats and nurse on their own. Mom has to feed them, move them any distances they must travel and stimulate them to even eliminate their own waste.

If you've ever seen the tail-docking procedure done where most pups settle to sleep within a seconds to 3 minutes of their tail docking/dew-claw removal, it doesn't seem cruel when you consider the thin, frail tail of a Yorkshire Terrier and the fact that they don't carry it protectively curled over their backs but out straight behind them. Besides, it you take a puppy up from its nest from its mother and place it down on an exam table at the vet's office or the breeder's and do anything to it that scares or shocks it such as look down its throat using an laryngoscope, or even just hold onto a single paw for too long, it will yelp and cry for a while and often takes just as long to settle to sleep again.

If the dog has only rudimentary nerve function so that it cannot process whole foods, cannot poop on its own and has under-developed brain-to-limb function as to be unable to even move its limbs enough to move about any distance, it simply cannot process nerve function enough to send strong pain messages to feel pain as its peripheral functions are still so crude. Heck, we don't even give our boy babies pain medication before circumcision for the same reason - they can't process sufficient pain messages from the brain yet as a newborn.

Not all Yorkies are kept in the cleanest and finest of conditions in this country - many are living in puppymills and under the meanest of conditions and long tails trailing long, thick hair often catch on things, holding the dog in place, or collect waste matter and mat. Yorkies tails are frail and can be easily injured in the most-headstrong of breeds that they are as they will go in/under/around/through anything to get to their prey - even if it's just a ball and their tail's well-being is the last thing on their mind.

I've seen a dog who had a car door closed on its tail after it had scarred-over and "healed" crooked and can only imagine what pain that dog had after that compound fracture. I don't know if it was EVER treated at the time and don't know how many tail injuries are even treated at home, let alone taken to vets for treatment. As a child I saw a dog with a fresh tail injury in my neighborhood and the image of that miserable dog biting at his bloody tail sticks with me to this day. I promise you he didn't settle to sleep within 3 minutes! I've seen long-tailed, long-haired dogs surrendered/found with masses of feces, leaves, grass, etc., hanging from their matted long tail hairs with large chunks right up against their rectums! I'll take 30 seconds to 3 minutes of whatever sensation of pain they might feel as a neonate any day to prevent those horrors.

What's worse to me are those vets that send adult dogs home after tooth extractions or spays/neuters and don't send pain medications with them! And there are those owners that won't even give them to their dogs after bone fractures or surgery who report their dogs are extremely restless or lying in a heap, shaking and whining in pain for fear of the side effects. I think that's cruel and neglect by vet and owner.

This issue is always hotly debated each time it comes up and each person so far is still able to decide which is the worst - a short time of suspect pain as a neonate vs. the troubles a long, hair, thin, hairy, unclean tail can cause during the life of the Yorkies of America.