The owner of the dog commences with maiming him while a puppy. He finds fault with the ears that nature has given him, and they are rounded or cut into various shapes, according to his whim or caprice. It is a cruel operation. A great deal of pain is inflicted by it, and it is often a long time before the edge of the wound will heal: a fortnight or three weeks at least will elapse ere the animal is free from pain.
It has been pleaded, and I would be one of the last to oppose the plea, that the ears of many dogs are rounded on account of the ulcers which attack and rend the conch; because animals with short ears defend themselves most readily from the attacks of others: because, in their combats with each other, they generally endeavour to lay hold of the neck or the ears; and, therefore, when their ears are shortened, they have considerable advantage over their adversary. There is some truth in this plea; but, otherwise, the operation of cropping is dependent on caprice or fashion.
If the ears of dogs must be cropped, it should not be done too early. Four, five, or six weeks should first pass; otherwise, they will grow again, and the second cropping will not produce a good appearance. The scissors are the proper instruments for accomplishing the removal of the ear; the tearing of the cartilages out by main force is an act of cruelty that none but a brute in human shape would practise; and, if he attempts it, it is ten to one that he does not obtain a good crop. If the conch is torn out, there is nothing remaining to retain the skin round the auricular opening: it may be torn within the auditory canal, and as that is otherwise very extensible in the dog, it is prolonged above the opening, which may then probably be closed by a cicatrix. The animal will in this case always remain deaf, at least in one ear. In the mean time, the mucous membrane that lines the
meatus auditorias
subsists, the secretion of the wax continues; it accumulates and acquires an irritating quality; the irritation which it causes produces an augmentation of the secretion, and soon the whole of the subcutaneous passage becomes filled, and seems to assume the form of a cord; and it finishes by the dog continuing to worry himself, shaking his head, and becoming subject to fits.
Mr. Blaine very naturally observes, that,
"it is not a little surprising that this cruel custom is so frequently, or almost invariably, practised on pug-dogs, whose ears, if left alone to nature, are particularly handsome and hang very gracefully. It is hardly to be conceived how the pug's head — which is not naturally beautiful except in the eye of perverted taste — is improved by suffering his ears to remain."
If the cropping is to be practised, the mother should have been previously removed. It is quite erroneous, that her licking the wounded edges will be serviceable. On the contrary, it only increases their pain, and deprives the young ones of the best balsam that can be applied — the blood that flows from their wounds.
[Contents]/[Detailed Contents, p. 5]/[Index]