Peircing/tattooing your pet cruel?

[Pembroke_Corgi]

It seems unnecessarily cruel to put an animal through something like that just to make it "cute." Not to mention I can imagine dogs and cats ripping their ears off if they were forced to wear earrings.

I personally can't imagine why anyone would think such a thing would improve their pet's appearance, much less consider doing it!

[binka_nugget]

The needles are pretty much identical. The only difference is that the needle for microchipping is a slightly bigger gauge. However, microchipping has a very useful purpose. Tattoos as well, but they fade, get covered with fur, and are sometimes hard to find the owner's info through. A little pain comes with these procedures, however, it's over shortly. A little numbness for a day or two and the dog or cat is fine.

Piercings, however, would always be exposed. The piercing would get knocked around constantly which would risk it getting pulled out (additional, greater pain). If by some miracle it didn't get pulled out, it would take a long, long time to heal (if it ever healed at all). Dogs get in bizarre places, like to roll around in god knows what, thus exposing the wound to a plethora of bacteria and potential infections.

[buttercup132]

I said..

Putting aside that it would be a stupid fashion statment what do you think?

So I don't get why everyone is saying it would be a stupid fashion statment..

Stupid humans never cease to amaze me. They're always trying to turn their pets into people. Tattoos as a fashion statement? Are you kidding me? Animals are not accessories! If it's done for ID purposes, maybe. But piercings? C'mon! Is there any balance in the world any more? Are people's lives so pathetic that they have to resort to stuff like this? What animals need besides the basics for survival are love, compassion and good vet care. How about a big dose of that? Fashionable clothes and tattoos and piercings...that's stuff for humans!!!!

I really hope your not saying that directed at me. If you read my post you would see I said I WOULDN'T do it. I just though it was a interested deabate because if you were to say you periced your pet people would freak and say your cruel because it's painful. Yet microchips hurt just as much. And um clothes for pets is kind of a nessicary thing for my cats.

Piercings, however, would always be exposed. The piercing would get knocked around constantly which would risk it getting pulled out

I was thinking that too but then I remember that in the wild they tag tigers,lions etc ears which to me would have more of a chance of getting caught.

[IRescue452]

Piercings are no good for animals. When they itch they might rip it out. Or when they roll, play, ect... They have no idea that they have to be careful around this thing somebody stuck through them. It not a matter of pain when the peircing is done, its a matter of how easily they can damage themselves when they rip it out.

Tattoos I'm ok with for id purposes and to show information about them being altered. I live in an area where most places still don't check for microchips, so a visible option is great.

[Randi]

In Denmark, cats are earmarked/tatooed when they get spayed/neutered/vaccinated etc. Fister had it done when he was about a year old, and of course, it's done while under anesthesia, so it's not painful for them.

The cat I found in he backyard this summer, was earmarked too, that's why I found the owner. I started the search by ringing my vet to see if he knew the cat - he did (Charlie). So I got the telephone no. to the owners and they could come and get him. He lived 10 min. walk away.

Although I think it's a good idea to microchip pets, I would not have been able to find the owner that fast.

People having pets tatooed for other reasons than identification, I find really stupid!! Vets should not allow it!!

[Emeraldgreen]

Microchipping is from all outward appearances not a painful experience. Dogs and cats receive them in the scruff of their necks usually or a bit lower down and it is much like a vaccine but as someone mentioned in an earlier post, a larger gauge needle is used but not that much larger. I've seen cats and dogs receive these and they don't even flinch. If it were for any other reason other than i.d. I wouldn't be for it but it helps get lost animals home so I think it's great.
I think the tattooes in the ear are a good idea as well. In this location they usually don't get covered by fur providing they are placed high enough up on the ear flap and that they are done well (i.e. legible). All vet clinics and shelters have a list of the codes used for tattooes so if a person finds a cat or a dog and calls any clinic or shelter, the code can be looked up to find out which vet clinic or shelter did the tattoo and then from there the owner can be found.
I run a website for lost and found pets and one of the things I usually tell people is to make sure they keep their contact information current with the hospital or shelter that actually did the tattoo. If the family moves and forgets to update this information the tattoo becomes entirely useless.

I am 100% against piercing and tattooing for cosmetic reasons (designs or words that are not used for i.d.). The piercing could lead to infection as others have mentioned and if a ring was used instead of a stud it could get caught on any number of things, including the animals own claws and could rip the ear or whatever part of the body is pierced. It would be so selfish to turn a pet into an accessory like that.
p.s. this is not directed at you Buttercup132 but just at the idea itself.

[buttercup132]

Aww those are so cute!
Although I'm sure most people would disagree
I don't think I could do it though because my cats lick themselves.

[Catlady711]

Microchipping is from all outward appearances not a painful experience. Dogs and cats receive them in the scruff of their necks usually or a bit lower down a larger gauge needle is used but not that much larger.

Microchip needles are very large! Where I work the vets refuse to microchip without tranquilizing the pet first. When an owner balks at doing that they brings up one of the needles to show them and they readily agree then.

All vet clinics and shelters have a list of the codes used for tattooes so if a person finds a cat or a dog and calls any clinic or shelter, the code can be looked up to find out which vet clinic or shelter did the tattoo and then from there the owner can be found.

Not all places have a list of codes for tatoos. In our area (at least 5 counties worth anyways) we don't have any type of system to keep track of tatoos. We only have maybe 5-6 tatooed dogs that come in out of all the animals we see, and no one knows what the tatoos mean or how to track them down, all the tatooed ones were strays and not all were spayed/neutered.

Dog tattooing for ID was common -- BEFORE microchipping was developed. (OK, back in the dinnosaur age). Very few vets do it anymore, the microchip is more reliable, when he took her to the vet for the spay, the vet explained he doesn't tatoo anymore, it is all microchipping.

Around here microchipping is the only ID method we use, not just the place I work for either. Microchips can be scanned by any vet/shelter, and there is a national database for each company that keeps the info for each microchipped pet. Our computer system doesn't have any means of tracking tatoos and as far as I know there are no national data bases for tatoos, although I can't say that part for a fact.

[Emeraldgreen]

CathyBogart, I would agree that small animals, especially tiny kittens would certainly feel the injection of a microchip and I think it would be uncomfortable for them. I was thinking more about adult cats and adult dogs. I have seen the larger gauged needles and the injections themselves and the adult cats and dogs did very well with it. However, I would not want to put a smaller animal or baby animal through that and would wait until they were full grown.
I hope that in the near future they will be able to create even smaller microchips than the ones they have today so even the small guys can be chipped without any pain.
The tattooed daisy applied by the tattoo artist would surely differentiate his dog from another if someone stole it but it wouldn't help get his dog home if it was lost unless he also had it tattooed with a number or had it microchipped.

Catlady777- I don't know, maybe the needles are smaller here in Canada?!? I used to help out at a vet clinic through help with a shelter and witnessed lots of microchipping and while the needles were larger they weren't alarming and I'm a huge softie when it comes to animals. I'd be the first one to worry about that but witnessing so many of them get the quick injection, and as mentioned without even flinching. The majority were larger dogs though so perhaps my view is skewed and I'm thinking mostly of that. It was quite a few years ago.
I'm fairly certain that the clinics in Canadian provinces (the western ones at least) do have records of all the tattoo codes in a book that is provided I think by the BCVMA (b.c. vet. medical assoc.) so if a cat is brought in by someone who found it wandering around on the streets of Vancouver, and it had a tattoo from Edmonton, they'd be able to look it up, call the clinic and then call the family. We managed to get a few animals home that had tattooes from out of province but had moved to B.C. It's an awesome system and one that I hope the States adopts because it's really effective. Microchipping does seem to be the more popular choice these days but in the meantime, the tattooes work great.

[ScottieMommy]

I would not mind getting my dog a tatoo on her belly with her indentification, but again how about if i change phone number? Thats permanent is it? I rather go with the microchip which she has. I myself would NEVER get my pet a peircing thats just crazy, i know pain comes with that.

I myself been thinking about getting a tatoo myself and i know i can take the pain so i dont mind, but my pet? Nah i will leave it as it is.

[Emeraldgreen]

The tattoos here in B.C. are a combination of letters and numbers. Each year the BCVMA chooses a letter that will be used and the other letter is one that is specific for each clinic. The numbers are chosen numerically so on January first, the first tattoo at a clinic might be JF001 (the letter J would be a clinic if that was their letter and the letter F would be the 2008 letter provided by the BCVMA, not sure what letter they are going with, just using that as an example and the number 001 would reflect the first patient being tattooed at that clinic in 2008. The books the BCVMA distributes to all the clinics each new year has all the clinics letter combinations so tattoo letters can be easily looked up to locate the hospital. There is also a section with the letters of clinics in nearby provinces, or at least there used to be.
If a person moves and changes their phone number, they just need to provide the new phone number to the hospital or shelter that did the tattoo so they can update the records.
I agree, tattooing a phone number on a pet would be a big commitment and because phone numbers so often change, probably not a good idea.

[Giselle]

Okay, I stand corrected: GREYHOUND ear tattoos are the ones I was talking about - special tool puncturing holes and rubbing dye into the holes. I watched a little video on how people do contemporary identification tattoos on a dog, and it's actually very similar to human tattoos. *shrugs* I think the greyhound ear tats are quicker and less painful in that sense.

And, the microchip needle is HUGE. I don't know what company you (in Canada) use, but both HomeAgain and ResQ have huge needles. After the microchip is inserted, you have to hold the flap of skin shut to avoid letting the microchip slip back out. My dogs didn't have a problem with it, but I've seen other dogs/cats who have. I do think a lot of it has to do with the individual animal's pain tolerance.

[Emeraldgreen]

One of the companies that I am familiar with is AVID. I looked at their site just now and the needle is listed as a 12 gauge needle. Looking at the photo of the needle, it is the one used at the clinic and it definitely is bigger than a vaccine syringe and I think you're right Giselle, it would depend on the pain tolerance of the animal. What I remember is that there wasn't any yelping or painful noises coming from the animals and there wasn't any sedation used or glue and it was all done so quickly, all within less than a minute that maybe it just appeared to be relatively painfree but just because it was fast and quiet should not be an indicator for pain and I could be completely wrong. In any case, I don't like animals to suffer, not even for a moment and there is no way I can honestly know what that needle would feel like and I'm sure it would hurt like hell if I got a shot with it. Most of my pets have tattooes instead of microchips that they received while they were already under anesthesia for spay/neuter. It's quite a bit cheaper than the microchip and reasonably effective here in B.C.
I guess my main objective is to help animals get back home when they're lost because of my work in that area for the past 3 years and the microchip is a tool to help with that but for smaller pets, and who knows, maybe all pets, it may be an uncomfortable option. As mentioned before, I hope they will come up with a teenie chip that will be virtually painless. That would be great.

[molucass]

I don't agree with piercing or tattooing for cosmetic purposes. And only agree with tattoos for identification..

However, at one point while I was in highschool, the newest fad going around was to pierce your dogs ears.. I would never have done it, but I do remember when I would go to Petsmart and Petco there would be people walking their dogs around with their ears pierced... The majority of them were people with pit bulls and etc.. I also worked at the humane society, and we had a couple dogs come in that had it done.

I think it's pretty cruel.

[IRescue452]

Tatoos might have different systems that not all can read, but at least on immediate sight you can tell that the animal had an owner once and/or was altered. A facility can read microchips because they own the machine, but a regular person who finds the dog doesn't own the equipment to reada chip. A tattoo is a major identification mark visible to all.