Though the docking, or cutting off, of dog tails is, and always has been legal in the U.S. and many other countries as a means of avoiding tail damage, improving pet hygiene and maintaining breeding standards, the veterinary establishment has become increasingly opposed to this practice in recent years, calling it “unjustified mutilation.”
Docking of dog tails is typically done within 24 hours of birth, and it can either be cut off with surgical scissors, with the option of putting a single stitch in it, or by using the more common “banding” method, in which a band effectively cuts off the blood flow to the tail, making it come off within three days.
In the United Kingdom, the law restricts the docking of dog tails to be only carried out by veterinarians, and many animal rights activists are attempting to make the entire operation illegal.
However, there are still many that disagree with this view. Both dog owners and veterinarian surgeons believe that it would harm a dog’s health to not have its tail docked.
Hunting dogs’ tails are docked to protect the tail from being damaged while running through thick brush and heavy vegetation. Hunting with a long tail commonly bloodies the sensitive tail and takes a long time to heal.
For long-haired breeds, such as Yorkshire Terriers and Old English Sheepdogs, tails are docked for hygiene reasons, to prevent the long hair around the tail from being fouled with feces; this can lead to health risks for the dog.
One last reason for docking tails is in order to maintain specific breeding standards. Some dogs are bred for quality of their body build but not for their tail length, shape or carriage; if the tail is allowed to grow long, it is believed to be likely that an otherwise “good” dog would not have a good tail, not being of a breed to have good tails.
Nonetheless, this custom of docking the tails of certain breeds has become highly criticized recently, threatening the continued legality of it.
