[tammylsmith]

Found this quote from an article today in the NY Times. Veterinarians are now mostly refusing to do "debarking" surgery on dogs for the following reason:

"Debarking is not a medically necessary procedure," Dr. Klausner said. "We think it's not humane to the dogs to put them through the surgery and the pain. We just do not think that it should be performed."

Woudn't it be nice if OBs and pediatricians were as sensitive to their patients as vets? If we are so worried about putting dogs through this, then it is a sad state that putting newborn boys through surgery is no biggie.

 

[BlessedMommy2006]

What is de-barking?

 

[Quirky]

Cutting a dog's vocal cords so it can't bark loudly.

Yep, I saw that. There are also many in the dog world who are moving away from ear docking, tail docking, etc. as unnecessary cosmetic procedures to meet some ridiculous human standard of beauty.

Our neighbors across the street got a Doberman and even though he's mostly grown now he STILL has to wear these bandages on his ears because they're not properly healing.

 

[KGB]

It's nice to see people are starting to see how unnecessary debarking is.

Our neighbor had a dog that would bark many hours at a time, usually after midnight. It was impossible to drown out the sound, even with a shade and curtains drawn, a fan blowing, and earplugs. It still kept us up at night. We ended up reporting the neighbor multiple times for noise disturbances. (Not to mention he was leaving his dog outside for hours when it was below 0!!!)

One day I left the window open and heard this coughing/wheezing sound coming from the back yard. I look out and saw that they debarked him! I was heartbroken. He sounded horrible. Imagine someone taking your voice away and not being able to hear yourself. I would have gladly chose to suffer through the incessant barking if it meant he wouldn't have gotten debarked. It was very sad. If the lazy owners just disciplined him and payed more attention to him it would have been a non issue.

I do hope that this trend starts with RIC. It's slowly starting to move in that direction: Insurance companies refusing to cover it since they consider it a cosmetic procedure, some doctors refusing to do it. It's slow progress, but eventually the US will finally wake up and be like the rest of the world.

 

[Roxswood]

Yes, nobody in the UK gets their cats declawed or their dogs debarked and we don't get our boys deforeskinned either.
Its been illegal for a number of years to dock tails or ears of dogs as well.
I find it so difficult to understand that anyone could think these things are ok.

 

[laughingfox]

That's so sad, KGB.
I'd be shouting if someone left me outside for hours in sub zero temperatures, too! I can't imagine the train of thought that led them to surgery instead of them working with their dog and letting him spend more time inside.

 

[Greg B]

Sounds like Veterinarians have stronger moral values than many human doctors...

 

[AXEius]

ive seen vets treat dogs more like people than Doctors treat humans like people. I am not surprised.