30 Jan 2023
David Martin – animal welfare advisor for IVC Evidensia – believes current legislation is hard to enforce unless “you actually catch someone in the act of cropping the dog’s ears”.
Allister Webb
Job Title
David Martin of the IVC Evidensia Welfare Working Group.
A senior vet has called for a ban on the ownership of dogs with cropped ears, warning current legislative plans are not enough to prevent more animals from suffering.
The plea follows an investigation by the BBC’s Panorama programme, which exposed disturbing links between the practice, extreme breeding and organised crime.
A new study has also warned that the true scale of the problem is likely to be underestimated, despite analysis suggesting recorded cases rose more than fivefold in a single year.
Ear cropping is already illegal in the UK, while for England and Wales, the Government’s long-awaited Kept Animals Bill proposes a ban on the importation of dogs that have already endured the practice.
Speaking in response to the Panorama broadcast, David Martin – animal welfare advisor for IVC Evidensia – believes the law should be urgently reviewed.
He said: “At the moment, the legislation in the UK is very hard to enforce unless you actually catch someone in the act of cropping the dog’s ears.
“It’s not currently illegal for someone to own a dog with cropped ears. So, if an owner were challenged by enforcement agencies, they’d just say, ‘I bought the dog like this’ and there’s no liability.”
As part of any new law, Dr Martin advocates a compulsory register – accessible to vets and enforcement agencies – of dogs that had already had their ears cropped at the point a ban is introduced. It would then be an offence to own an unregistered dog with cropped ears and, with such animals being sold for thousands of pounds in some cases, he believes the market for them would quickly collapse.
He added: “Ireland is already considering banning ownership of dogs with cropped ears. We would advocate for similar legislation in the UK.”
The Dutch government has also recently announced plans to ban ownership of pets with what it describes as “harmful external characteristics”.
New research from the University of Liverpool, published in Veterinary Record, identified 132 cases of dogs with cropped ears presented to vets between 2015 and the first quarter of 2022, based on data from the SAVSNET system.
Of those, almost two-thirds (84; 63.6 per cent) had recorded evidence of importation and it was thought likely that most of the cropping took place before the affected dogs were brought to the UK.
The study found that the proportion of identified cases jumped from 2 per 100,000 dogs in the third quarter of 2020 to around 11 a year later, while the RSPCA had previously reported a 621 per cent increase in incidents between 2015 and 2020.
But the study also warned that its findings “cannot be considered to be formally representative of the nation as a whole”, as it only covers around 10 per cent of veterinary practices and largely excludes the charity sector.
It further cautioned that some dogs may have had their ears cropped legally for medical reasons.
BVA senior vice-president Justine Shotton said the footage shown in the programme, broadcast on 23 January, was “horrific”, but argued the current bill would address the ear cropping problem if it was given the parliamentary time necessary to be passed into law.
The association has also published a template letter, which it is encouraging members of the public to fill in and send to their MPs to call for them to support the bill’s passage.
She said: “BBC’s Panorama investigation is an urgent wake-up call to Government to crack down on the criminal gangs and unscrupulous breeders that exploit loopholes in the law, and jeopardise the welfare of dogs for profit.
“Better enforcement of existing legislation is needed. But the Government should get behind the stalled Kept Animals Bill, which is ready baked and could finally see an end to ear cropping without the need for new legislation.”
Dr Martin also highlighted the dangers of becoming a co-owner – particularly of a mixed breed dog – after the Panorama broadcast showed how the model can be used in an apparent attempt to evade current breeding laws.
He said: “All the contracts I have seen in my role as an expert witness are strongly weighed in favour of the breeder.
“So, for example, if the bitch does not have the requisite number of litters, or becomes ill or injured, and has to be put to sleep, then the co-owner is fully liable for the full purchase cost of the dog to the breeder.
“Considering that the female dogs are often valued in excess of £12,000, and the breeder may well have connections to organised crime or have a criminal record, there are huge risks for people entering into co-ownership.”
Meanwhile, a dog show for American bulldogs in Coventry in February was cancelled following the BBC investigation.
