Ear Cropping: Myths & Facts

There is a lot of misunderstanding revolving around the practice of cropping. And I feel it's important that correct information is made available. There are multiple reasons for cropping. Here are a few -

• It's a decision that owners make. - Just as it's a decision that owners make to remove the reproductive organs from their dogs. Just as it's a decision parents make to circumsize their sons.

• It's a corrective surgery. To understand that, it's important to first understand canine genetics, how domestication started, and how all of the different breeds came into existence. Dropped ears are not a product designed by natural selection. Dropped ears are a direct result of human influence and intervention by use of selective breeding. When we look at the evolution of dogs, dropped ears didn't start appearing until domestication and selective breeding by mankind. Many of the genes or regulatory elements involved in generating morphological traits during canine fetal development have a particular feature; They carry what are called tandem-repeat sequences. These repeats are far, far more present in canines than other animals. When these regions are copied in the germ line, the copying enzymes tend to get confused and synthesize with too few or too many repeats, creating “slippage mutations”. So, because of these random repeats and when we inbreed dogs, we end up seeing drastic changes in dog's physical size, shape, color, and behavior. The entire reason people starting breeding dogs was to obtain and retain certain traits. However, in order for future generations to keep these traits, a great deal of inbreeding was required (sybling to sybling, offspring to parents, cousin to aunt, etc). This inbreeding greatly increased the already intense tandem repeats in the genome. So many repeats create extreme mutations. These mutations include characteristics such as dropped ears, curly tails, spotted coloration, short hair, curly hair, etc. And that's just physical characteristics. These repeats also affect behavior (but that's another topic for another time). So to explain canine domestication in simple terms; Early Europeans liked the aesthetics of these mutations that appeared when they inbred their dogs. So when they saw the first dropped ears appear in their breeding programs for example, they started breeding together only dogs with dropped ears. And they continued to breed them together until they began to breed true from generation to generation. And that's how dogs got dropped ears. In conclusion to this, dropped ears were created by man. -And they were created for appearance, not function. Nature did not create dropped ears. We don't see dropped ears in any other species for a reason. So when we crop dropped ears, we are correcting what we as humans created.

• Health benefits. Dropped ears do not allow adequate air flow to the ear canal. They are highly prone to mites, bacterial or fungal infections, and hematomas. They are also more prone to becoming damaged in dogs that are utilized in work (herding, hunting, retrieving, etc). In the working dog, a dropped ear is asking to be bitten, stepped on, or caught on something sharp in the environment. This can lead to repeated torn cartilage and nerve damage. Furthermore, because of gravity, dropped ears can bleed excessively when damaged. All of these situations are commonly chronic and can cause prolonged pain, deafness in extreme cases, and are very costly with repeated vet bills. Dogs with erect ears experience far less infections and damage than dogs with dropped ears. - Their ear cartilage is stronger and they receive adequate air flow to the canal. As someone who has worked in both veterinary medicine and grooming, I can say from personal experience that I see far, far more chronic ear infections and hematomas in dropped ears than in dogs with erect ears. While we are on the topic, I'd also like to point out a few misconceptions about cropping that the public may have:

• "It's barbaric and painful". Cropping is not the barbaric practice that animal rights fanatics would have you believe. The surgery itself is done under anesthesia (like any other surgery), is performed by a licensed vet, is extremely non-invasive, and only takes around 10 minutes. When the surgery is performed before 12 weeks of age, the dog feels very little afterwards. The cartilage and nerves in the ears have not fully developed at that age, so feeling in the ears is minimal. This makes the healing process quick and relatively painless. Compare that to spaying/neutering a dog which is extremely invasive, highly controversial amongst veterinarians, and potentially detrimental to healthy development depending on a dog's age.

• "Dogs with cropped ears can't move their ears". Dogs with cropped ears don't have any issues with using their ears to communicate. They can still move their ears perfectly fine. In fact, because the cartilage is established and strengthened from being held up, they can move their ears better than dogs with dropped ears. They don't experience any kind of ear pain. They don't encounter any hinderance to their communication. One thing I hear from people when they see a dog with cropped ears, is how expressive the dog is.

• "It's banned in other countries and AVMA because it's so horrible!". The reason why it's banned is because many people were once performing the procedure in their backyard with a pair of scissors or an ax. And they were doing it purely for cosmetic reasons. Like anything related to pet health, not being responsible and not utilizing a licensed vet is highly dangerous and damaging. When cropping is performed correctly, it's highly auspicious. When ignorant fanatics lump irresponsible people with veterinary procedures and push ill informed ideas to the public, it's damning to education. PETA for example, unfortunately has an increasing hold on various fields of the professional animal world. These people value anthropomorphizing animals over using logic. Their opinions are based on emotion, not formal education in biology, behavior, or veterinary science.