WHAT IS CRUELTY

 by Jarryd Stewart-Cook (2006) (YR 12 Bundaberg High School)(Junior Handler)

What is more humane: letting a dog mutilate its own tail; or painlessly removing it at birth by bands? I’m here today as a member of the Council of Docked Breeds to speak to you about the positive benefits of tail docking. Without tail docking a dog can suffer immensely because of tail damage and hygiene issues. Tail docking will effect future generations through economy because some breeds may become too rare for the average pet owner to afford; and some pure breed strains of dog may even become extinct due to ethical breeders not wanting to breed and put their dogs through so-called “misery” created by tail docking.

What is Tail docking? Docking is the customary shortening of the tail. Tail docking is carried out on new born pups of certain breeds; such as spaniels, poodles and terriers. These pups are docked to prevent injury to the tail in its adult life, or to improve hygiene by preventing faeces fouling the area, creating the subsequent risk of infection or fly strike. Along with dogs, the procedure is also undertaken on farm animals; such as sheep. This type of docking is called “prophylactic” or “non–therapeutic” docking.

A prohibition on docking was introduced in Sweden on 1st January 1989. This was followed by a large increase in tail injuries amongst working gundogs in Sweden. Owing to the nature of shooting sports in Sweden, where individual hunters work their own dogs through extensive areas of forest and brush, the Hunt-Point-Retrieve (HPR) breeds are popular, and most especially the German short- and wire-haired pointer breeds. Given the high level of injuries to these affected breeds, the Swedish Kennel Club petitioned Verk (Ministry of Agriculture) with a request that docking should be permitted in the HPR breeds which they represented (German short- and wire-haired pointer, Weimaraner, Hungarian Vizsla, Brittany).

In 1992 the Swedish German Pointer club published the results of a survey which was carried out during the autumns of 1990 and 1991. The researcher (Gunilla Strejffert) followed the history of the 53 litters of German Pointers (short- and wire-haired) which were registered during 1989. Fifty of these were undocked, and three, having been born in 1988, were docked. The dogs involved were used for hunting on average 2-3 days a week during the two seasons, mainly in woodland. In 1990 responses were received for 44 litters, and the following year for 26 litters. These comprised 191 individuals in 1990, of which 179 were still alive in 1991.

It was found that in 1990, 72 individuals or 38% of the group had suffered tail injuries. In 1991 the number of tail injured individuals had increased to 92, corresponding to 51% of the group. Expressed in terms of the population born in 1989, the survey indicated that the frequency of tail injury amounted to some 35% by 1991. The report concluded: "In other words, every third German Pointer with a long tail has suffered from more or less serious tail injuries."

So the raging question is: Is the Docking of dogs’ tails cruel???

Prior to the banning of tail docking in Australia, docking was normally carried out by experienced breeders or registered veterinary surgeons. Docking is done without any required anesthesia, before a puppy’s eyes are open, which normally occurs in its first 10 -14 days of life. The earlier a puppy is docked the better, and many vets like to carry out the procedure before the age of 3 days. Removal of any part of the tail after this age constitutes amputation, which may only be carried out for therapeutic purposes. Docking that most breeders do themselves involves the placing of a specialized rubber band at the required length on the tail. Any other way of docking is cruel and illegal. The banding method stops the blood supply to the end of the tail and therefore the end of the tail comes away within approximately 3 days. In some breeds it is customary to remove only a small part of the tail. In others, a greater portion is removed, leaving a relatively short tail. Veterinary observation of the behavior of a puppy after a properly performed tail docking does not suggest suffering. Directly beforehand, puppies may vocalize as if they are being picked up and pulled away from their mother. Post docking, every puppy rejoins its siblings quietly, finds a comfortable position, and immediately sucks milk or goes back to sleep. Furthermore, normal weight gain proceeds unimpeded. As far as the pup in later life is concerned, it is as if the docking has never taken place.

Injuries can include the stripping of hair from the skin, inflammation, lesions, bleeding and broken tails. Tail injury is painful and healing is protracted. Once a dog has sustained a tail injury, it may be so affected by the discomfort it experiences when working that it declines to enter cover or hunt as effectively as it formerly did. The dog’s value as a working animal or sporting companion is therefore reduced. Therefore; breeds which have been bred to hunt game through thick vegetation or to hunt below ground, and which have tail characteristics and actions which predispose them to injury, are customarily docked.

Tail injury in long-tailed specimens of customarily docked breeds is not merely confined to those dogs which are used in the hunting or shooting field. The Council of Docked Breeds is aware of many cases of injury sustained in domestic situations where dogs are injured in the home or while exercising. The tails of many customarily docked breeds lack any protective coat. There are little more than skin-covered bone and split easily, especially when accompanied by exuberant tail action such as that of a Boxer. Frequently the owners of such dogs contact veterinary surgeons to later find out that the dogs’ tail has to be amputated because of breakages in many places. In cases where injury may be chronic but at a low level, our experience is that veterinary treatment is largely unsuccessful. Where injury is severe, the only option is amputation. This is far more traumatic than the simple process of docking a newly-born pup.

It is alleged by some that a docked dog is somewhat disadvantaged in respect of balance and communication. However, no dog requires acute balance skills more than a racing greyhound; and observations show that the racing greyhound makes little use of its tail during a race. A greyhound which has had its tail docked because of injury suffers no balance impairment during races and currently the fastest grey hound in the world has a docked tail!

Docking is only one of a number of prophylactic or preventative surgical procedures which are carried out on dogs. It may be among the most contentious, simply because it is easily visible. However, it is certainly not the most traumatic or invasive. Castration is undertaken not so much for the benefit of the dog as for the convenience of the owner, in order that the dog may not stray when there are bitches in oestrus present nearby. In many instances the spaying of bitches is routinely carried out more to prevent inconvenience to their owners than for veterinary medical reasons. Castration and spaying are carried out on adult animals and by any token are far more serious procedures than tail docking of newly-born whelps, yet the latter has attracted a level of debate that is out of all proportion to its significance in animal welfare terms.

All responsible breeders consider the welfare of dogs to be of the utmost importance. They recognize that docking should be carried out by competent, experienced individuals such as veterinary surgeons. They therefore wish to see vets free to continue docking, without the threat of action for professional misconduct hanging over them.

But, just as farmers in the U.K. are permitted to dock lambs, breeders believe that there is a strong case for suitably qualified lay people to be authorized by law to dock puppies.

The Council of Docked Breeds has therefore proposed the introduction of a docking Register listing those who would be trained and certified in docking.

Breeders and owners maintain that, far from improving the lot of docked breeds, the effective abolition of docking would lead to a crisis in animal welfare

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