I was at the pet store with my Great Dane and a lady was admiring her and mentioned her ears being left intact (some people crop the ears of certain dog breeds) and she said "you know, I used to be against cropping ears, but then I had a doberman who had terrible infections, so I think I'd crop the ears if I ever got another long-eared breed."
I said "well, we prefer to leave our dog natural, we'll deal with infections if they present themselves, but lots of dog breeds have long ears and their ears aren't routinely cropped, beagles, bassets, etc. Same thing with our boys, we would never circumcize just to prevent infection, which is rare anyway, we would just treat it just like you treat a vaginal infection."
She looked at me, and said "I never thought of it that way! Why do surgery if there's no problem?" DING DING DING DING!
And I said "Yes, and not only that, this is the way my dog, and my sons, were created, so we're not going to alter either one of them without a darn good medical reason. There are things you can do to lessen the chance of infection ocurring in the first place, I'd much rather do that."
She just patted the dog one more time then walked away, looking introspective
Who knew that my DOG would be an intactivist tool!
I said "well, we prefer to leave our dog natural, we'll deal with infections if they present themselves, but lots of dog breeds have long ears and their ears aren't routinely cropped, beagles, bassets, etc. Same thing with our boys, we would never circumcize just to prevent infection, which is rare anyway, we would just treat it just like you treat a vaginal infection."
She looked at me, and said "I never thought of it that way! Why do surgery if there's no problem?" DING DING DING DING!
And I said "Yes, and not only that, this is the way my dog, and my sons, were created, so we're not going to alter either one of them without a darn good medical reason. There are things you can do to lessen the chance of infection ocurring in the first place, I'd much rather do that."
She just patted the dog one more time then walked away, looking introspective
Who knew that my DOG would be an intactivist tool!
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any way, i have never cropped anything, but i can understand why people do. the ears and to a lesser degree tails weren't breed very responsibly just like all the smoshed dogs that have breathing problems. people weren't breed, nature has taken out most of the useless bits we don't need to cut anything off.
You'll often find people are more passionately compassionate about animals than children. Linking the two in their minds can be helpful.
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