Ear Cropping Gone Wrong: Fact, Myth and Problem
If you’ve ever seen an ear-cropped dog, you’d know that there’s no way to get the remaining four on the ear silky and as attractive as possible. And this fact isn’t lost upon many people; in fashion magazines and animal rescue shelters alike, dogs are regularly posted with their ears cropped.
It’s not uncommon for dogs to have their ears cropped. Unfortunately, it’s a common practice in the dog world, and while many owners may feel that ear cropping is necessary, it’s not.
What is ear cropping?
Ear cropping is a practice where the ears of puppies are cropped off. The idea is to reduce the risk of ear infections and other problems with the ears.
The procedure usually involves cutting through the cartilage at the top of the ear using a scalpel. Some techniques try to avoid the cartilage so as not to damage it, but if you do decide on something like this, make sure that your veterinarian is the one performing it.
As for why dogs get cropped? It’s just another common practice in veterinary medicine that can be explained and justified by looking at some of the benefits of cropping ears. Ear cropping will reduce ear ich, ear infections and scratching because dogs can’t reach the ears to scratch them.
In addition, it may reduce the amount of stress caused by an immobile or painful ear in a dog’s life. Ear ich is typically treated with leftover antibiotics if you touch my nose ring. If your dog doesn’t want to remove his boots when you call him for walkies, he most likely needs some help here.
Ear Cropping Gone Wrong: Fact vs Fiction
This is a true story of how my father and I got caught up in the ear cropping debate. It is also an example of why many people are against this practice.
Like many other farmers, my dad took his cattle for auction at the same time every year. But unfortunately, the would-be buyers were mostly from overseas and often had no idea what to do with their animals when they arrived, especially in countries where livestock is essential (e.g., some parts of Nigeria); this was a massive problem because ordinarily, good quality beef is not cheap – prices reflect that in terms of cow weight and slaughter age (the latter being how fresh the meat is, but this isn’t relevant here – we’re talking about value).
The upshot of all this was that many of our cattle were taken to Australia or New Zealand the latter turned out to be the most common direction just before their slaughter date. I think around 50 per cent may have gone in one year. In either case, it’s clear why ear cropping has become such an essential part of sheep management in the Middle East. No one liked ending up with expensive but otherwise useless ears, and no problem marketing a prime cut of meat – ear cropping was here to stay because it worked!
There are other reasons for ear cropping: The first is breeding success. When you want reasonable lambing rates (as we do), your ewes need to have effectively flawless ears so that at least some babies will survive into adulthood given their fleece yesterday, I saw a very high-quality product pictured in one of the books on woolshed-living – it was described as late lambing success, which means that because the ewes have been bred to be polyestrous, they will place their lambs well enough by themselves.
The myth in Ear cropping
The AVMA has stated that the practice of ear cropping does not prevent ear infections. However, there is no data to support this statement.
In addition, some veterinarians may suggest a complete change in diet for certain breeds as part of any general management plan, which may involve ear cropping. However, this can cause more damage because the ewes have had to undergo an acute dietary change like grain withholding – malnutrition is a possible outcome, depending on individual breeds and reasons for this instruction.
Here are some of the questions I would ask: Is there any research backing or contradicting these statements? If you do confirm, they’re backed by science.