In most cases, the dogs with cropped ears had been legally imported from EU countries where the procedure is illegal, igniting renewed calls for action on closing this legislative loophole via the Kept Animals Bill.
The study, “Dogs with cropped ears in the UK: A population-based study using electronic health records“, has been published in a recent issue (4 to 11 March 2023) of Vet Record, the British Veterinary Association’s (BVA) journal.
It found that a total of 132 dogs with cropped ears were seen by vets across a sample size of 500 practices between 2015 and 2022, with numbers peaking in 2021.
The breeds most likely to have cropped ears were the American Bulldog, Dobermann, Italian Mastiff and Bulldog.
In more than 60 percent of the cases, the dogs had been imported from countries where ear cropping is illegal, such as Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Serbia, Spain, Poland and Ireland.
Ear cropping is an unnecessary painful mutilation that involves cutting off part of a puppy’s ear flap for cosmetic reasons, often without anaesthesia or pain relief.
Sometimes the ears are splinted to make them stand upright.
The practice carries no health or welfare benefits for the dog and is illegal in the UK. However, it remains legal to import and sell dogs with cropped ears. It’s not a specific offence to send dogs abroad to be cropped.
The increase in rates of ear cropping reported in the Vet Record study was determined to be broadly consistent with data from the RSPCA in a similar period, with 279 cases and a 621 percent increase in reports of ear cropping made to the charity’s emergency helpline between 2015 and 2020.
Similarly, in BVA’s 2021 Voice of the Veterinary Profession survey, six in ten vets that had seen ear cropping felt the number of dogs with cropped ears they saw in practice had increased over the previous year.
It also found that there is still work to be done to raise awareness among clients that ear cropping is illegal in the UK. While 19 percent of vets believe most of the owners of dogs with cropped ears they saw were already aware that the mutilation is illegal, 15 percent said that none of their clients were aware until they reached the practice.
The study’s authors, Lucy Norris, Gina Pinchbeck, Peter-John Noble and Alan Radford, used data from electronic health records submitted by veterinary practices participating in the Small Animal Veterinary Surveillance Network (SAVSNET).
They acknowledge that the findings of their research are likely just a small snapshot of the true scale of the ear cropping problem.
Figures from the 2022 PDSA PAW Report suggest that the true numbers of dogs imported with cropped ears could be as high as 26,000.
British Veterinary Association senior vice president Justine Shotton said: ”This paper provides further evidence on the concerning rise in ear cropping that vets are seeing in practice.
“Unsurprisingly, as the study’s authors state, the numbers of cropped dogs seen in this study are not representative of the true UK-wide picture, with that figure expected to me much higher.
“As part of the British Veterinary Association’s #CutTheCrop campaign, we would like to see the government take decisive action to pass the Kept Animals Bill, which will help close the legal loophole that allows the importation of dogs with cropped ears into the UK and acts as a cover for the illegal procedure to be carried out within the country too.”
For more information on BVA’s #CutTheCrop campaign, see the BVA website.
To access the Vet Record research got o their website.
