I thought ear cropping was illegal  in this country?have just found an add proudly selling docked and cropped puppies for sale? it says legally docked and cropped.

Could be a scam, or could be puppies brought in from overseas, from a country where it's legal.

There's a few people importing cropped and docked Dobermans to sell on over here since the rules on bringing dogs into the UK changed. There were a few before the change for adults but now There's quite a few adds on the usual puppy selling sites for older pups, young dogs.

it was a dobe, I was just surprised since I thought cropping was illegal. So it is ok to have a cropped dog as long as it is done elsewhere. That doesn't make much sense to me. Surely if cropping is illegal then is should be illegal to import or own a cropped dog, not just illegal to do the actual act. :( I cannot see any justification for ear cropping at all.

NY,

Ear cropping is 100% illegal here. Anyone, including a vet, found to crop ears on these shores would be prosecuted. A dog with cropped ears cannot be shown at KC shows. However, a dog that is imported that already has cropped ears is another matter, though it cannot be shown at a KC show. Not sure about working events. Proven working dogs can be exempted here for tail docking.

A dog with cropped ears cannot take part in any KC-licenced event.

Surely if cropping is illegal then is should be illegal to import or own a cropped dog, not just illegal to do the actual act. :-(

I don't agree. You can't DO anything with the dog other than keep it as a pet (or breed from it), so will only have disadvantages from the cropped ears and no advantages at all. Now imagine if you lived in a country where cropping was normally done, had a pet dog you loved very much, and then you needed to move to the UK for whatever reason. You had no choice, you had to move to the UK. Would you think it fair if you had to leave your dog behind simply because its ears were cropped? I say this because many years ago, when I was a kid, my aunt lived abroad and she and her family had a Boxer with cropped ears.  They then moved back home to Sweden, where cropping was illegal, and of course the dog came with them. Back then it meant quarantine as well, but no way were they going to leave their family pet behind.

Yes, I see your point.

I just hate the idea of chopping a puppies ears off just for looks. I know I remove dew claws but they can cause problems. I don't like the look of cropped ears and they are done on much older pups, not newborn, so must cause some pain and discomfort. And I can see no benefit to the dog at all.

Oh I agree newyork.

I agree totally, too; the look is hideous (I know that others, especially overseas, disagree) and the pup has to endure months of post-op taping and bandaging to make the ears stand up, so it's more than simply cutting the ears. But I wouldn't ban the importation of dogs, whether purely pet or potential breeding stock, which have suffered this.

A lot of breeds are taken to Ireland to whelp and docked etc over there before they are brought back over here to rear and sell.  I would imagine that is the likely way they got around the ear cropping too.

Ear cropping's illegal in Ireland too.