Pain outweighs gain for tail-docked dogs

Monday, 28 June 2010 15:08

A recent vets' report has found that an astonishing 500 dogs would need their tails docked in order to prevent one tail injury.

A paper published in the Veterinary Record magazine by Gillian Diesel and colleagues, summarising research carried out on behalf of DEFRA contradicts pro-docking lobby claims that the mutilation is needed to protect working dogs.

It describes a study conducted during 2008 and 2009 to quantify the risk of tail injury in dogs, to evaluate the extent to which tail docking reduces this risk and to identify major risk factors for tail injury in dogs attending veterinary practices in Great Britain.

Fifty-two practices across Great Britain were involved in the study, in which 281 cases of tail injury were identified from the clinical records of more than 138,000 dogs attending the practices over a 12-month period.

Among the findings was that the overall risk of tail injury was low, and that trauma not associated with work accounted for most of the injuries seen by the participating practices.

Work in itself was not a major risk  factor, and characteristics such as the dogs’ breed, the width of the angle over which they wagged their tails and their docked status were more important factors associated with tail injury.

All tail docking of dogs was banned in Scotland in 2007 while in England and Wales an exemption exists for working dogs.  However, tail-docking lobbyists have been seeking a similar exemption in Scotland, with two Public Petitions currently lodged with the Scottish Parliament.

Advocates for Animals' Policy Director Libby Anderson stated:

"This paper shows that we were absolutely justified in pushing for a complete ban on tail docking, not just for ethical reasons but for the very practical and common sense reason that it makes no sense deliberately to injure 500 dogs in order to spare one from injury."

"As the old adage goes, most accidents happen in the home and that seems to apply to dogs just as much as human.  Nobody is minimising the seriousness of tail injury in adult working dogs – but this research gives no support to the case for an exemption for working dogs and confirms that the Scottish Government was correct to ban all tail-docking of dogs in Scotland.  Not only do we expect the Scottish Government to uphold this sensible and proportionate ban, we encourage the Westminster coalition to emulate it at the first opportunity.”