I am glad there are more people out there who are equally as against cosmetic surgery to dogs as I am. It really is a matter of opinion, I am open minded to everyones' different opinion on this controversial subject of cropping and docking but I feel so strong about it, perhaps because i have seen first-hand how painful and un-necessary and sad it is to see ears sliced up.

There were 3 vets where I worked. All 3 would do the cosmetic surgery (cropping & docking) but all the vets knew that ear cropping was done for looks only, that it even causes more health problems then a non cropped ear. With the ear being erect, there's quite a bit more debris that flies directly into the ear, since there's no cover to protect it. Ear infections, ear odor, yeast infections, dirt, mud, bug bites, and "earwax" are a huge amount (in general) higher in the "cropped breeds". GSD's have erect ears but when you see the ears they have alot more hair in them protecting them from debris, where the ears in cropped dogs have little protection from dirt and junk getting into the ears. Genetically they are not meant to stand up so they are prone to problems when forced to do so.

I was a freshman in high school when I started working at that vet. I had always wanted to be a vet and was fortunate to get a job so young at a vet so I could get my "feet in the door" to vet school. Working at the vet all through H.S. and partly through college taught me that in order to make money, vets must do things that are not pleasant, things that they may not agree with. I decided that I could not hack off the god-given claws of cats, I could not slice off the tail of a newborn puppy with no pain killers and I most certainly could not slice up the ear of a sweet, trusting puppy because "it'll look better". I am glad I had the opportunity to work at that vet because it taught me that I did not want to be a vet, I want to be an animal lover. Although I would go home and sob almost every day from the trauma of screaming puppies, death, sickness, owner neglect, euthanasia and other things that are hard for a sensitive,animal loving high school kid to witness, working at that vet was necessary for my future "sanity"