As seen in today’s issue of The Nation newspaper:
Surgeries performed on animals for purely cosmetic reasons will soon be deemed as unethical by vets in Barbados.
A release from the Barbados Veterinary Association (BVA) has stated that vets will no longer be performing these surgeries as from February 1, 2013.
Vice President, Dr. Michelle Belle, said that these procedures included the “docking of tails for cosmetic and breed standard reasons, the cropping or surgically altering the shape of the ears for cosmetic reasons, removal of front leg dew claws and the de-clawing of cats.”
Belle said the docking of tails was usually requested for breeds like Rottweilers, Jack Russell puppies, Dobermann Pinchers and the Weimaraner.
The BVA pointed out that, however, this new ruling does not prohibit local vets from carrying out procedures which are in the best interest of the health and safety in animals.
Belle further explained that this new position follows a decision recently taken in England. She went on to say that they also believed it was an unnecessary procedure.
Besides England, I believe the European countries such as Germany, France the Netherlands, have also adopted a no cropping and no docking of dogs position. In North America, tails can still be docked and ears cropped. It will be interesting to see what position is taken in the other Caribbean islands.
Some breeds do look much more a guard dog with cropped ears and docked tail. I know of a person in Barbados who imported a Dobermann and he told me he wanted its tail removed at over 16 weeks of age. I think at least one vet turned him down. Removing a tail from a four month old puppy and older would cause immense pain, unlike docking a tail of a three day old puppy but that person had it done anyway as he said it did not look good with a tail.
And I agree that some tails do look better than others, judging from the overseas photos I have seen of breeds like Boxers, Bull Mastiffs, and Dobermanns running around with long tails. But with time everyone here should adjust to the new look in breeds.
