As part of my involvement with dogs, I do a lot of reading and research and this morning before breakfast I was reading a book by Pat Miller about positive dog training. She is an American dog trainer. I came across these few lines in a chapter on barking. I am speechless.
"One of the most disgusting things humans sometimes do to their dogs is debarking. Dogs come with voices; it is up to us to train them not to be chatterboxes. Debarking a dog by severing his vocal cords is an abomination."
First: I did not know this practice existed and I will check with my vet whether this is done here in Belgium. Second: I did not know the word debarking.
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oh my god, ED. I'm shuddering. And no, I'd never heard of debarking either.
Hi, eurodog. I did know this practice existed. I remember my Dad telling me he had read about it - I don't know whether he'd read that it was going on in the UK [I don't imagine so ] or elsewhere, or maybe he just read that it could be done. Of course we were both horrified at such cruelty. This would have been quite some time ago, as my Dad died in 1973.
Ps: I had not heard the term "debarking" though. Horrific.
I know this phrase only too well for an acquaintance had her dog debarked not long ago. She lives in an apartment building and the neighbours were complaining about it barking and she was told to do something about it or get rid of the dog, a sheltie. I was horrified when she told me she had done it. I think that it is done more often than we could imagine.
Hmm... this question of mutilating animals seems to have no clear lines for many. Some are horrified by the debarking of dogs and de-clawing of cats and then have the tails and/or ears of their dogs chopped without a second thought.
And then there's me, docking my lambs' tails to make sure that when they are full grown they don't suffer from the ghastly flystrike (flesh eating maggots) and so that I can avoid losing lambs when it is their turn two years later to give birth. Interesting that I would never do this to a pet but am happy to treat livestock this way. And then I eat them, of course.
Isnt' this just the equivalent of taking away a human voice? Dogs are meant to bark aren't they! I know sometimes it can get a bit noisy but I would never stop my dogs from barking at people who come to the door. They are my loyal companions and would never allow strangers to harm me.
Crystal xx
P.S. Thank you for the tip about guardian angel via my blog.
Yes , I have heard of this. its awful.
yes, I've heard of debarking. It's a terrible thing to do to a dog.
We had a problem with our dog barking and barking and barking while she was waiting to be fed, but we would never have considered having her debarked. Instead, I trained her out of doing it. It's not difficult, but some people have little patience.
I have never heard of such a cruel thing. I hope it makes the dogs bite more.
Thank you all for commenting on this cruel practice.
It is all down to training but often we encourage a behaviour without knowing it. Tricky.
Mopsa, I think docking lambs' tail is different.
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