Deformed ears for designer dogs - 7th February 2022

An underground network of dog breeders willing to mutilate puppies' ears to keep up with a current social media trend has been exposed by a journalistic probe. For merely aesthetic reasons, the dogs have their ears severely cropped, a procedure involving the animal's floppy outer ear flap being sliced off.

The practice tends to occur in breeds such as the American Bully, to render a more menacing appearance. As the procedure is banned in the UK on the grounds of cruelty, breeders arrange fraudulent pet passports which indicate it's legitimate, having been carried out overseas.

Tracing several breeders responsible for uploading images of cropped-eared dogs on social media, investigative journalists uncovered the dodgy underworld of the UK's lucrative puppy business. One breeder was caught saying it was "a shame" that such a "striking look" was prohibited in the UK. He subsequently offered a young dog to the undercover reporter for the sum of £13,000, promising it would be microchipped and have the requisite paperwork.

Dog rescuer Vanessa Waddon, from the animal charity Hope, has been tending to victims of ear-cropping. She's seriously concerned that the craze is being stoked by influencers uploading images onto social media platforms: "While [the celebrities] may have imported the dogs legally, there are people cropping illegally in the UK to meet demand."

Since cropped-eared pups have an added value of approximately £1,500, breeders are willing to go the extra mile, even if it means breaking the law.

Paula Boyden, from Dogs Trust, declared that there was never any justification for a procedure of this kind, cautioning that it could ultimately give rise to a range of welfare concerns. "Some animals then go on to develop infections or don't like people touching their ears," she explained.

"We've also seen behaviour issues because dogs communicate with their ears, and without them they may have difficulty in doing that with their owners or other dogs."