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In US, dog breed clubs still support cropping, docking

By Vicki Croke, Globe Staff, 02/19/2000

EW YORK - Julie Brown stood in the crush and chaos of the benching area at Madison Square Garden, where the dogs were encamped during this week's prestigious Westminster Kennel Club dog show. Nearby, in a crate, was her gorgeous white-and-brown Brittany, dual champion Classic's Can Do Andrew. Like all the other Brittanys competing in the show, he had just a short, fur-covered rod of a tail. If his tail were longer, he wouldn't have been here at all. And Brown said she is determined to see things stay this way.

Brittanys are among the 49 American Kennel Club breeds that routinely have surgery to alter their tails or ears. All around this show, which is considered the Super Bowl of canine conformation, you see these transformed dogs: Great Danes, Doberman pinschers, schnauzers, Bouvier des Flandres with stand-up "prick" ears; terriers, spaniels, and Old English sheep dogs with short tails or nearly none at all. The look is so familiar to us that we may even think these particular dogs are born this way.

In England and many other countries, however, the surgeries are banned as cruel and unnecessary. According to Nancy Peterson of the Humane Society of the United States, Great Britain did away with ear cropping back in the 1890s and has prohibited tail docking since 1993. Further, she reports that the list of countries following England's lead in these matters is extensive, and includes Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, and Switzerland.

In the United States, we appear to be 100 years behind the times. What all these countries have identified as a fashion statement, some here call a medical necessity. Cropping and docking is still a matter of great debate.

Animal welfare organizations in the United States agree with England: Ear cropping and tail docking (amputating some or most of the tail) are useless procedures. Once done in pursuit of athletic function, today they are performed, it is charged, purely for aesthetic reasons.

But individual breed clubs that support the procedures say it is a medical issue. Ear cropping, they claim, reduces the incidence of ear infections. Tail docking, they assert, is a safety precaution for dogs who might injure a long tail in herding or hunting - or in exuberant wagging.

Yet poodles and basset hounds have long ears that can get infected, and we do not crop them. Great Danes and Irish wolfhounds have long, strong tails that can be injured, and we do not dock them.

Many would like to see the procedures end in this country.

Legislation has been introduced in Ohio and Georgia to ban cropping and docking. And just last month, a lawyer in New York, Jon H. Hammer, brought suit against the American Kennel Club to change the rules governing its dog shows.

What does the powerful AKC have to say about all this? The organization did not return phone calls to the Globe.

But there are many in the dog world, such as Old English sheepdog owner Amy Howard, who will speak out. Her dog, Champion Seathweite's Ecole Taj, was one of 20 entered in the breed at Westminster. As several Old English breeders and owners stood in the benching area defending tail docking and saying it is neither painful nor unnecessary, Howard said, "I hope I'm not in the business when they stop docking them."

That day will come, though it may not be soon.

In July, the American Veterinary Medical Association passed its first official policy statement against the operations, but, though groundbreaking, it was mild.

It stated that the procedures are, in fact, "for cosmetic reasons" and do not benefit animals medically. They cause pain and do put animals at risk, the policy says, yet it only encourages vets to "counsel dog owners about these matters before agreeing to perform these surgeries."

According to Gus Thornton, the president of the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and a veterinarian himself, this is a topic that has come a long way and has a long way to go.

"This has been an issue that comes on the plate of the AVMA almost every session," Thornton says. Other, stronger policy statements have failed, so MSPCA backed the current resolution as a realistic proposal that had a chance of passing. "As far as I'm concerned, this is a major first step," Thornton says.

Amy D. Shojai, author of "The Purina Encyclopedia of Dog Care," says aside from rare cases of frostbite or fracture or a few medical problems with the ears, cropping and docking are mostly done "for purely cosmetic reasons." She has worked in a veterinarian's office where the procedures were performed. "I've held those puppies," she says, "and I know they were in pain."

Hammer, the lawyer from New York, says he was unaware how volatile the issue is until he filed suit. Since then he has been inundated with calls and letters.

For him, the whole thing is a simple matter of kindness and logic. "I'm a lawyer," Hammer says, "so when I think something is wrong, I litigate."

His 8-month-old Brittany, Spooner, has an uncut 10-inch tail, and that does not fit the AKC standard for the breed, which reads in part: "Any tail substantially more than four inches shall be severely penalized."

Hammer says the Brittany, an agile sporting dog, was bred to do the same work as his English setter, a dog who has a lovely, long, feathered tail. Hammer does not think docking in the Brittany is about function.

So he has filed suit in Manhattan's State Supreme Court, claiming that tail docking violates the state's anticruelty laws. He names both the AKC and the American Brittany Club Inc. as defendants.

The AKC may say that it doesn't make the rules, the individual breed clubs do, but Hammer disagrees. He says the registry reviews the rules and can object to them. Further, he says, the AKC promotes itself as a powerful purebreed organization. Indeed, its Web site carries the statement: "As the kennel club approaches the year 2000, it has positioned itself at the forefront of anything and everything involving purebred dogs - their owners, breeders and supporters - companion and competitive, alike."

Ultimately, to Hammer, there is one overriding principle in his favor. "To me," he says, "a dog should have a tail."

This story ran on page E01 of the Boston Globe on 2/19/2000.
© Copyright 2000 Globe Newspaper Company.