Demand for cosmetic enhancement among pets on the rise, animals' rights getting hurt

MANGALURU: People have weird fascinations and this includes cosmetically altering their pets. Despite a ban, tail and ear docking, a procedure of chopping off the tail and altering the ears of dogs to make them look sharp-edged continues to be practised.
Tauseef Ahmed founder and rescuer at Mr Rescuer told TOI,"On an average, I come across at least five cases a week of tails of desi dogs being tied with a rubber band. Among breeds, Doberman and Rottweiler are mostly tail docked."
On people tying a rubber band to a puppy’s tail, he said,"The rubber band is put so tightly that it cuts off blood supply and gradually the tail dies and falls off. The tail is a continued part of the backbone. Docking a puppy’s tail involves cutting through muscles, tendons, up to seven pairs of extremely sensitive nerves, and severing bone and cartilage connections. I have had cases of dogs getting paralyzed after the process and being thrown on the streets because they are not needed anymore," he said.
Tauseef said that he gets requests for declawing, especially for indoor Persian cats."People assume that declawing is a simple surgery to remove a cat’s nails or a simple manicure. But declawing traditionally involves the amputation of the last bone of each toe. If performed on a human being, it would be like cutting off each finger at the last knuckle," he said.
Veterinarian Dr Ashitha Suresh said certain illegal breeders and pet owners decide how a dog should look. This includes the length of its tail or upright ears. Thus, people who shell out money on a pedigree puppy with the intent for shows have no choice but believe that this is how a dog looks. Tail docking continues to be widely practiced. "Since tail docking is done at a tender age, puppies are subjected to needless pain. Tails are used to swat away flies and to express certain states of mind like fear and happiness. Also, in case the surgery is done improperly the chances of infection are high and things could get from bad to worst," she added.