I feel that tail docking and ear cropping is cruel. I worked at a vet hospital for 4 1/2 years and I am sorry to say I assisted with many, many tail docking and ear cropping surgeries (along with declawing in cats) and it's very painful and unnecessary. 1/4 to 1/2 of the ear is sliced off, it's sick, the pups will sleep through the whole thing but they will wake to an aweful surprise it's only done for cosmetic reasons, there's absolutely no health benefit for slicing half an ear off and putting rolled up cardboard inside it and taping it all up so it'll stand up. It's just my opinion, but I think cropped ears are very ugly on dogs. I can't believe people think it looks better then a soft, natural, beautiful floppy ear. But it's not my decision. If the owners would have to watch one surgery I doubt they would put their dogs through it. It's very, very bloody, and it's very sad and gross to see 1/3 of an ear lying on the table like a cold, dead leaf. I wish it were banned in the USA as it is in the UK.

Tail docking (at least the procedures I assisted with) are done to 1-4 day old pups. No anesthetic is given, they just get this box full of adorable, beautiful puppies and an assistant pulls one out, put's it's butt towards the doctor, the doctor grabs his forcepts and in 3 slices the tail is off...then they proceed to stich up the bloody hole on the puppy. The puppy screams for it's life, there's no pain killers so it HURTS, no doubt! The doctors told me that they can't register pain when they are that young, but the scream that comes from those little lungs are like none I have ever heard. It obviously hurts them...how could it not hurt them? The tails are snipped off their bodies with no pain killers.

I have seen some problems from dogs having tails still intact so I know that it may have some health benifets to get them amputated unlike ear cropping. My first dog as a kid (beagle/shepherd mix) got a cut on the tip of his tail and every time he wagged his tail and it hit something (which was a zillion times a day) the cut opened up and he got blood splatters everywhere. The vet told my mom that she has the option of having his tail amputated so he would quit breaking open that cut he had but she opted to keep surgical tape on the tip of his tail instead. Some dogs benefit from a docked tail, but it's a very painful procedure. I don't recommend it and I would not ever do it.