Puppy with ears and tail cut off

[newatheist]

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/...s-tail-cut-off

What could possibly make someone do something so cruel? What did that little puppy do, what could it possibly have done to warrant such a reaction?

F***ING disgusting.

[Floppit]

Cutting puppy's tails off was done routinely for hundreds of years - I think it was some time in the 1990's the practice was starting to be frowned on and eventually (almost) stopped.

When it was socially acceptable vets did it mostly without anaesthetic - just CHOP, it was done on almost every terrier, rotweiller (sp??), doberman, pointer... nope, too time consuming to list them all! It was done by millions of very ordinary people, boringly so.

I wish the world was a fair place, I wish there was some point questioning what a puppy did to deserve X, Y or Z but I think realsitically nature, and people, are both exceptionally kind and exceptionally cruel at times.

[Croydon Bob]

Cutting puppy's tails off was done routinely for hundreds of years - I think it was some time in the 1990's the practice was starting to be frowned on and eventually (almost) stopped.

I still see docked Spaniels. Probably about 50/50 docked/tailed. I always look at Spaniels because I like them and used to own one. It really pisses me off to see them mutilated.

Not quite the same thing as what was probably some thug teenager cutting off a dogs ears with scissors. Sick, but unfortunately that's the way many humans are. I went to school with a scumbag who enjoyed torturing animals when he wasn't bullying the younger kids; he ended up in the Marines and a (first) Gulf War hero.

And, of course, worse things happen in nature. I used to have a Guinea Pig, Fluff, that I bought from a childrens' zoo for 30p. It had had its ears bitten off by penguins! It later survived being chewed and spat back out by a fox that got into my shed. All at least as traumatic as what the dog suffered at the hands of a human.

[Floppit]

Not quite the same thing as what was probably some thug teenager cutting off a dogs ears with scissors.

Why? I mean from the animal's point of view. Vets wear a tie and get paid but believe it or not most still used very scissor like instruments. Ok, yeah, most were over 30 (the vets that is!) but then we don't actually KNOW the above story was done by a teenager, and it's not like your average sadistic kid suddenly turns all angel when they hit 20.

So how is it really different? Is it only because one is accepted as ok and the other is not? Or is it because one is done for money while the other for fun?

I think mutilating animals is wrong, de-clawing, de-toothing, removing the voice box UNLESS there is a valid reason when assessing harm done by not mutilating. But, good god, the vets of ALL people knew damn well your average housebound spaniel wasn't SERIOUSLY going to break his tail while working!

[Floppit]

Just a thought - is it because we want to think the 'nasty' things are done by people nothing like us? Is it just too damn scary that educated, law abiding citizens do abhorrent things too?

[chaggle]

Why? I mean from the animal's point of view. Vets wear a tie and get paid but believe it or not most still used very scissor like instruments. Ok, yeah, most were over 30 (the vets that is!) but then we don't actually KNOW the above story was done by a teenager, and it's not like your average sadistic kid suddenly turns all angel when they hit 20.

So how is it really different? Is it only because one is accepted as ok and the other is not? Or is it because one is done for money while the other for fun?

I think mutilating animals is wrong, de-clawing, de-toothing, removing the voice box UNLESS there is a valid reason when assessing harm done by not mutilating. But, good god, the vets of ALL people knew damn well your average housebound spaniel wasn't SERIOUSLY going to break his tail while working!

From the animal's point of view the only thing different between the two cases is that the Vet (one would hope) would do the deed as humanely as possible and with clean instruments etc. whereas the thug wouldn't care.

From the perpetrators point view though there is surely a world of difference. I do not know the reasons a presumably loving owner and caring vet would put an animal through that, maybe stupidity or greed but not sadism and thuggery. They are doing it in spite of the pain to the animal. The thug is doing it because of it.

[Floppit]

From the animal's point of view the only thing different between the two cases is that the Vet (one would hope) would do the deed as humanely as possible and with clean instruments etc. whereas the thug wouldn't care.

I would love to think so but the yard were I used to work was owned by a farmer who bred working JRTs (not my boss BTW), all his puppies tails were docked, most of them by an aged and often drunk vet, I remember 3 that died from infection over the years. The task at least wasn't done for money, old friends, a drink and choppy choppy!

My best dog was one of his rejects that he was going to drown in a bucket, except my boss, at the time, risked his livelyhood threatening to stick his head in a bucket if he drowned her. My boss rented the yard from the landowner JRT breeder.

I have seen well respected, middle and upper class men do the most disgusting acts with impunity.