THE TALE OF TAILS

Readers of this blog might remember that last week I told the sorry tale of our boxer dog Toad's tail here http://patnurseblog.blogspot.com/2009/08/another-choice-lost-animal-suffers.html.

He duly went for his trip yesterday to the vet but it wasn't good news.

You may recall how I told of how when we came back from a trip to the North East, Toad, who couldn't have his tail docked at birth because of a new law preventing it, had whacked it on something and it has bled profusely since.

The vet examined him and the good news is that he is very fit and well enough to have the operation but the good medic astounded us because she said she would only remove about an inch which isn't going to do any good. He would still have about a metre circumference swinging with each wag and he is bound to knock it again. I guess that would mean another trip to the vet, another £100, another bit chopped off, and yet more suffering for Toad.

We have reluctantly, for now, decided against having it docked on medical grounds although we might seek a second opinion. Ironically, the vet was more interested in trying to persuade us to have his manly bits chopped off to "quieten him down". We love his character and wouldn't want to change it, but it does seem bizzare that the law says we can't dock his tail but we can castrate him.

Another choice lost .... an animal suffers ...

Thanks to the fluffy vegetarian loving Nu Lab cronies, it has been against the law (in England) since April 2006 to dock dogs' tails.

As the owner of two boxer dogs, I can say with authority that there are indeed cases where the animal is better off without it, although I understand that the means behind the law was to stop those heartless people who attempt to lob it off themselves, often with tragic results.

We got Batty, a mostly white boxer, in January 2004 with docked tail. He's always been happy and has never suffered. We bred him in spring 2007 and Toad, his son was born in August of that year. The owner of Toad's mum couldn't get the puppies' tails docked because of the new law. We didn't think that would be a problem but it is.

I hope you can tell from yet another bad photo the state Toad's tail is in at present. Not only does he tend to slap my two and half year old granddaughter across the face when he wags it, we also came home from our recent trip to the North East to find the kitchen looking like a crime scene. Our neighbour had been going in daily to feed, water and walk him, and at some point, Toad had whacked the end of his tail against something and it began to bleed. It looked just like someone had dipped a brush in red paint and then flicked it on all the walls and doors. In addition there were bloody smears everywhere.

After six days it still bleeds and so we have an expensive visit to the vet tommorrow to see what can be done to ease his suffering. It seems that now he's an adult, an operation of this kind may be too much for his heart to take and so he first has to have tests.

Of course if we had freedom of choice, we could have made a decision to have it docked at birth. That would not have affected him as much then as it probably will now. The Council Of Docked Breeds has been fighting this issue since it reared it's ugly head back in 2002, and the NuLab Govt, so used to lying, lied when it responded to the CDB with this : "Sincere views were held by those who both support and oppose a ban on cosmetic docking and our preference is that there should continue to be freedom of choice."

However, the Countryside Alliance and the British Association for Shooting and Conservation lobbied the Govt to save docking for working dogs at the expense of show dogs. Then 88% of MPs (even those who previously said they favoured choice) voted in favour of banning docking with exemptions for working dogs. The result, animal suffering such as endured by poor Toad today.

The only difference I have found between Batty, who has no tail, and Toad, who has a full tail, is that Batty can't balance when he has a crap and tends to do a trail. Toad, on the other hand can balance and drops a nice pile! Meanwhile, his tail is making him suffer, us suffer, and anyone under 3ft tall suffer.