Dogs are OUR creatures. We literally evolved with them. From the time we were living in caves and dragging our knuckles, the Grey Wolf started hanging around our camps, scrounging for scraps. It was the beginning of a beautiful relationship. Dogs are part of what it is to be human.
Because of our unique and innate relationship with dogs, we, as humans, have manipulated them for our purpose. Sometimes it is for fetching or pointing game, perhaps as draft animals or protection. Some were bred just to look cool.
One thing that man has done to the dog is created floppy ears. No other mammal, with the exception of the elephant, has floppy ears. Apparently we, as a species, like the aesthetics of danglers.
Some people will crop the ears and stake them in order to make them stand up. This causes controversy as many people will call it "inhumane," "cruel" and "abuse."
But is it?
Let us put aside the fact that floppy ears is not something that occurs in nature...but instead look at whether it is, in fact, painful. That requires a bit of understanding of dog anatomy.
The part of the ear that one can see is called the pinna. Everything above the line is all cartilage and skin. If you remember your high school biology, you know that cartilage has no blood or nerves. The skin, of course does have some small, surface arteries and veins and a few sparse nerves.
What does all of this mean? Obviously, if one crops the ears, the area with no blood or nerves, the cartilage, transmits no pain. But what about the skin, you ask? The answer is, almost none.
I can here the Karens now..."if I pinch your nipple you will cry like a baby!!!" And Karen would be correct.
Why?
Because nipples have a lot of nerves. But let's try to compare the human skin that is more analogous to a dog's ear. The elbow.
Like a dog's ear, there are very few nerves in the elbow. Go ahead, take a moment and give it a pinch. You can feel it but it doesn't hurt. In fact you probably can't make it hurt. Welcome to your very own"dog ear." Let us ignore the fact that dogs are generally tougher than humans (even women) and don't feel pain near acutely. As your elbow just proved, it is, under no circumstances cruel or painful to crop a dogs ears.
Don't believe me? Ask the owner of a hound dog.
My first dog, a delightful lemon beagle, would go off chasing rabbits through the bramble and the thorns, mindlessly chasing rabbits. She would come back a bloody mess. Her skin would be scratched all over but back to the point...it was quite common for her to come home with shredded ears. She would shake her head happily, sending blood everywhere, her tongue lolling as she pranced with pride after another successful hunt.
So you can rail against cropped ears all you want but the argument about cruelty is simply false. 100% bullsqueeze.
If you have just a little bit of honesty, you will have to find another argument to justify your hatred of cropped ears. Don't worry...I have faith in you.
What IS cruel is to destroy your dog's hormones by a conventional spay or neuter.
And before one goes into the non-issue of ear cropping, they should ask themselves if they support the mutilation of humans, in a spot where there ARE a lot of nerves, that tragedy that we call "circumcision."
Hypocrite or not, the bottom line is that ear cropping returns a dog's ears to a more natural state is in no way cruel.
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