Dragonseer
Walking the driveway
- Joined
- 2/29/16
- Messages
- 234
It is on this point that I tend to disagree, though respectfully so.It should be noted that cropping and docking are simply cosmetic and have no real impact on the animal's health whereas clipping a bird's wings rendering it unable to fly or only fly partially is detrimental to their physical and mental health.
I don't believe that cosmetic work should be done to animals, which, true, cropping/docking fall under that category. I'm guessing that, in some cases, infection and/or nerve-related damage have the potential to occur, if a surgical error is made. (Hopefully, that's very rare.) In that regard, though, cropping/docking have the potential to impact a dog's permanent health status, both physical and mental.
Declawing runs the risk of changing a cat's personality due to pain. That is, it's thought that those whose personality quickly goes from sweet to temperamental--even downright angry 24/7--likely suffer from permanent nerve pain, post-declaw. (I know a family whose young cat was sweet but became a beast within 2 weeks after declawing her; they wound up re-homing her, as she could no longer be trusted around their two children. Sad--and preventable, IMO.)Declawing is awful and can potential raise health/quality of life concerns but they are minimal when compared to a bird who cannot not fly.
I still view clipping a bird's wings as more of a temporary situation--in that the feathers can regrow--rather than a permanent one, unless, as I've mentioned, a bird somehow becomes unwilling (or unable) to fly over time.
As my husband has pointed out to me, cropping/docking/declawing are forms of permanent disfigurement. That's not to say that I'd clip all birds' wings under any/all circumstances, but I still see surgical procedures done on pets for cosmetic reasons--or to protect one's couch from being scratched--as more severe than clipping a bird's wing feathers; feathers could grow back, should a bird's owner decide to allow his/her bird(s) full flight.
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