Originally Posted by Burrowzig

Occasionally humans are born with an extra finger. Presumably you would find it OK to band one until it dropped off, as a newborn baby "don't know any different".
You say banding doesn't hurt or harm puppies. Were you monitoring the levels of their stress hormones and endorphins? I doubt it. It is instinctual in pack predators, or herbivores that can be preyed upon, to bear any pain without demonstrating it. The reason is that if they draw attention to themselves they risk being turned on, rejected and killed in the case of pack predators, or selected as weak and targeted as prey for the herbivores.

There was an outcry in Australia a few years back about the treatment of Merino sheep. They have very fine wool and valuable fleeces. Farmers had been breeding them with looser skin to make a bigger fleece and more profit. Folds in the skin were getting infected and flies going in, all maggoty - the farmers were cutting out the sections of infection, no anaesthetic, stitching up afterwards, and claiming the sheep weren't hurt because they didn't react the way the farmers thought they should. Herbivores just don't display pain like people do! As part of the coverage, there was monitoring of stress hormones and endorphins, leading to clear evidence that sheep do feel pain as much as any animal, just don't show it.

Originally Posted by rebenda

Agree with you! i just cant understand the humans that say well they look better like this like that!!get over yourselves the animals born with a tail for a reason, yes ok if the animal is a working animal and you can prove that its a working dog for example then you can get the tail docks, amputation under anasthetic, i just cant understand the human brain sometimes when saying dont show any pain a puppy doesnt know any different! give me strength animals hide pain for a reason.

this was something i were talking to the vets at work with apparently they are possibly linking tail docking with probs with the urinary tract but still being researched but until any probs proven hey al just go band my dogs tail coz im sick of how it looks.....

Originally Posted by isadobe

its all about peoples preferences & i personaly think that certain breeds look better without a tail,

..

Originally Posted by Natik

and thats the whole problem....its not about the dogs at all and its them being mutilated without being able to do anything about it

Originally Posted by isadobe

But why the big outcry now ?
its gone on for centuries & the breed standard of certain dogs was stipulated that they had their tails docked,
in years gone by yes there were some who done it & it was done in a barbaric & i would not support that method but i do not see what is wrong in banding a pups tail ..

Originally Posted by isadobe

But why the big outcry now ?
its gone on for centuries & the breed standard of certain dogs was stipulated that they had their tails docked,
in years gone by yes there were some who done it & it was done in a barbaric & i would not support that method but i do not see what is wrong in banding a pups tail ..

Originally Posted by Nonnie

We used to fight dogs aswell, but as our understanding of animal needs and welfare have improved, so has the way we treat our animals. We are better at deciding whats right and wrong, and putting the animal BEFORE ourselves.

Dobes used to have their ears cropped traditionally, would you like this to still happen?

Not to mention that breed standards change all the time to fit what humans think are desired appearances in dogs. Look at pictures from centuries ago, and compare them to the same breed now. Things change, its called progress.

Originally Posted by sequeena

My mother has a GSD/Doberman with a GSD tail. It's massive and she hurts herself and others. In her case I think it would have been better if her tail had been docked (like my mother's JR) but otherwise I don't agree with it.

I'm sure we'll learn to live with their tails