Mutilating your pets to suit your lifestyle...

Why is it that Americans practise this? De-clawing cats, trimming and wiring dogs' ears, cutting their tails off...

Would they cut their kids' hands to stop them crayoning on the walls? Then again they're so obsessed with modifying their own bodies I guess modifying an animal which can't say 'no' comes as second-nature...

 

I always have a laugh when people start comparing domesticated animals with humans.

 

We mutilate ourselves with Plastic Surgery by the billions every year, why wouldn't we do it to our pets as well?

We Americans shape the natural world to our liking. Sorry you don't like that but it comes with being so powerful.

 

Or circumcision....

 

Why would this question be directed solely at Americans?

 

At least Americans still have the freedom to choose whether they want to alter the appearance of their pets or not. Lots of countries have taken away that right. Nanny-state countries.

 

Hey, know what? I think that I will have my better half's ears cropped and her tail docked. That way I will increase her trade in value, if I ever decide to trade her in on a newer model that is LOL

 

I'm guessing that's not a tail in your better halfs underwear.

 

I'll never tell.........

 

Declawing cats is cruel. They need their claws to climb. Docking the tail of a dog is a weird one as I have no idea why you would want to do that.

 

If you have an inside cat it is best to declaw the animal unless you want your furniture to be shredded.

 

or you can just provide it with scratching posts and toys and trim the claws every so often.

declawing sounds humane, like sawing off a cow's horns, but what they actually do is amputate the ends of the animals toes, on a human it would be from the first knuckle above the fingernail, they just cut off that whole end of the toe.

and in spite of the OPs obsession with all things he doesn't like being exclusively American:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZL0gFtpfpw"]LMFAO VIDEO: Black kitty vs rottweiler - YouTube[/ame]

as you can tell by the run down buildings and the dark, polluted sky...as well as the gutteral mumblings of the person making the film, this isn't America..

and that dog wasn't BORN with a tail that short.

Fail!

 

It's should be fairly obvious to anyone why a tail is docked. Breeds with a heavy wag/working dogs are far more likely to injure their tails, often times several times, over the course of their life. Tail injuries are painful for the dog and can often become infected.

 

Not to mention, a wagging tail is the #1 reason why stuff flies off the coffee table and a dog gets its butt kicked. Cats love to stretch, with their claws dug in, and most people who declaw them have nice furniture that they don't want to see destroyed. Both make perfect sense.

Until I see a pet with pierced nipples on fake boobs, and shaved spots for a tramp stamp and an "I luv mom" tattoo, I don't see what the big deal is.

 

I don't have a problem with docking tails if it's done humanely, I just object to people doing it as a 'home' remedy, like putting a rubberband around it til it rots off.

cropping ears and amputating toes is a little much for me.

(I know a woman that has her dogs ears pierced and keeps studs in them...*roll eyes*)

 

Yeah, all you mentioned are screwed up. I guess I have just never seen it.

 

Most dogs that have been docked are just ordinary family pets. A dogs tail is used for balance and for language. Unless your using your dog for cattle herding etc, the practice is unnecessary and not in the best interest of your dog in my opinion.

 

There's nothing wrong with de-clawing a cat.

 

Cattle herding? Ummm....

A person who breeds a heavy wagging dog/hunting dog/working dog has no idea what they are going to be used for, and the tails are almost always docked weeks after birth before they are even sold to the eventual owner. The later you dock it, the more potential for trouble you'll have, period.

As an avid hunter with several breeds of dogs I've hunted with throughout the years, I can assure you a undocked tail is a royal pain in the ass for the owner and the dog. It does not affect the dogs balance, that is absurd. Even for the family pet who occasionally plays in the park etc, in heavy wagging breeds a tail docking can save the animal from several tail injuries over the course of it's life....so of course I disagree with your assessment.

 

I wasn't thinking about hunting, that could be another example. However, unless due to a sport or specified work the dog is going to be "used" for, to say that a dog having its tail removed is advantageous to the dog is silly. It serves a purpose to them (balance being one of them), just not to us in some incidences. I don't have a problem with it per say, as long as the animal properly cared for and treated well.

 

Originally, because the tails would get torn up running through heavy brush. Now, just cosmetics.

 

My Gracie was an inside cat for the 12 years of her life. She scratched the furniture but she was told off for it. She could tear the crap out of my furniture (if she were still here) and I wouldn't care. My furniture is her furniture.

 

How is the cat to defend itself in a fight if it has no claws?

 

I've made a poster about this very subject! Click on the attachment!

 

WWTF?!? The animals have some rights too. We share the (*)(*)(*)(*)ing planet with them. This is horrible perspective, from someone who considers themself a christian. It sickens me.