Hi again,
I'm sorry, but, WHAT?!
I have been the criminal running away from attack dogs in training situations and believe me the last thing you would think of grabbing is a an ear! The UK police use mainly German Shepherds and, although their ears naturally stand erect, at the point of attack as the mouth opens the ears are automatically flattened to the head.By cropping the ears you are taking away the dogs natural ear posture and protection, leaving, if anything, more of a so called target.
All dogs that have floppy ears have the ability to prick their ears to focus on a particular sound. If there really was a case that cropping ears allows better hearing then we should start thinking about gun dogs, hunting dogs, in fact every dog that needs to hear! I can just see Beagles and Retrievers being next.
As for making life safer for your dog - you are taking away a major part of the dogs communication equipment, especially when coupled with docking. People will react differently to your dog ( which I suspect is the real motivation behind this mutilation) as they will be unable to judge the dogs intentions. Any sensible person would be wary of approaching and the dog will become used to this and find normal interaction unusual and difficult. This may lead to aggressive behaviour with no outward warning - this applies to interaction with other dogs too. I can well and truly see where these dogs get a reputation for unpredictable behaviour!
Please, if you are going to try and defend cosmetic mutilation come up with plausible arguments!
(p.s. I'm a pacifist really and don't like upsetting anyone!)