Forwarded message - please reply to tami@thebeakretreat.com
(Note: Descriptions are graphic - if this is hard to read, imagine
what it must be like to live through it!)

DEBARKING OF DOGS IN THE USA - AMERICAN FRIENDS ??????

Sadly, debarking and declawing are common here in the US. I've
worked as a Vet Tech for 24 years and I can tell you that declawing
cats is so common, it is almost the norm. As more people live in
these crowded cities and keep cats indoors they find that the cats
claws are a nuisance and want them removed when they are spayed or
neutered.

A common practice is to use one of those guillotine style clippers,
used to trim a dogs toenails. The cat's paws are cleaned and soaked
in antiseptic, tourniquets are tightly placed on the upper leg to
stop blood flow. The Vet just chops off the first digit of the toe
which of course includes the claw. One must be certain that the
whole digit is removed or the nail will grow back in a bizarre
fashion and the people will of course demand that the procedure be
repeated.

Once all the toes are removed, the feet are quickly dried and a drop
of glue is dropped into the gaping holes and pinched closed with
forceps. The feet are then bandaged. Tourniquets are removed and
the cat is left to wake up in agony, thrashing and flinging it's
bloody bandaged legs all over the cage. The fortunate cats finally
give up, exhausted and panting. Some of them manage to tear off the
bandages and the slamming of their paws against the cage walls opens
up the toes and the blood is everywhere. These poor cats are not
quite out of the anesthetic and often need to be noosed, injected
with a sedative IM and re-glued and bandaged while still semi awake.

Debarking is even worse.

The debarking is simply going down a dog's throat with a sharp
debarking instrument and tearing apart it's vocal cords by removing
chunks of flesh. It is bloody and messy. The debarking tool is an
elongated device, similar to small salad tongs, with serrated edges.
The dog is under general anesthesia of course as the Vet reaches down
it's throat tearing out chunks of vocal cords and tossing them in the
bucket or the floor. This process is repeated over and over. The
dog's head then must be kept facing down off the table to allow blood
to drain and avoid drowning, despite an ET tube. Upon recovery, the
dog drools, coughs up blood and sadly tries to bark. They are sent
home the next day on tranquilizers to prevent barking which will
cause scar tissue and enable the dogs to once again vocalize as they
should.

The most common dogs to undergo this procedure are the herding dogs,
Collies and such whose very nature it is to bark.

Tami Myers
tami@thebeakretreat.com
Founder and Director
The Angry Parrot Inc
www.theangryparrot.org
508-699-6891

National Activist Campaign Coordinator
Foster Parrots Ltd.
www.fosterparrots.com

the Pet Trade BITES and we are biting BACK!
Boycott PETCO, PetsMART and Petland
Don't support Pet Breeding Mills

Posted on SHARE Yahoo group Jun 28, 2004