Jack Russell Terriers are a breed that traditionally has their tails docked, or shortened. However, this is a practice that, thankfully, is on the decrease and may eventually be outlawed in the UK.

First of all it is important to point out that it is already illegal for anyone other than a qualified and registered vet to perform tail docking. Now, it is interesting to note that the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS), the British Veterinary Association (BVA) and virtually all animal welfare charities oppose all forms of non-therapeutic (see below for definition) tail docking but there are still many thousands of dogs having their tails docked each year. Therefore, one has to ask the question who is doing the docking? Maverick vets who are not following the guidelines or breeders doing it themselves and thus illegally. Of course, there are probably many breeders who are putting unfair pressure on vets to dock tails and the vets are left with the horrible knowledge that if they don't do as the breeder wants, the breeder will just go ahead and do it themselves anyway.

Definitions

Therapeutic docking: a procedure performed under anesthesia to correct or repair an injury. This is the only form of tail docking that can be justified.

Non-therapeutic docking: may be divided into

Cosmetic docking - tails are docked simply, well that is the perception, to make the dog look better and to enhance its chances at shows, even though for breeds which the Kennel Club has standards for (and it has already been pointed out on the website that this does not include the Jack Russell, only the Parsons Jack Russell) there are separate standards for dogs with docked and undocked tails. In my opinion, breeders who dock for this reason care nothing for the welfare of the dog, they only want the kudos of breeding a show winner.

Preventative/prophylactic docking - tails of working dogs are docked as a precaution on the premise that the dog may sustain an injury during its working life. I will discuss below why this argument is ludicrous.

Why tail docking should be banned

There is now convincing evidence to suggest that puppies feel pain when their tails are docked. Tail docking is usually done when the puppies are between 3 and 5 days old, and certainly before their eyes open, but even at this tender age they can sense their environment. Vets who support docking, and there are some, counter this argument by saying that after a puppy has its tail docked it will return to its mother and continue suckling and this shows that the puppy didn't feel pain. What rubbish! What else is a puppy going to do, all it knows is the comfort of its mother and the comfort will be even more important after experiencing such a traumatic experience.

Tails are an important communication tool for a dog. The stance of the tail can tell you a lot of what the dog is thinking. A waggling tail shows that the dog is happy, a drooped tail shows that it is submissive etc. Now, at least with Jack Russells there is usually sufficient tail left after the docking that the dog can still use it for this purpose but for other breeds such as boxers so much of the tail is removed then this tool is lost completely.

Tails may be useful for balance. Even though dogs which have had their tails docked may show no handicap in this respect this is no reason to remove the tail in the first place. An analogy is that humans have two kidneys but can survive perfectly happily with just one. However, you would not remove one kidney just for the sake of it.

Working dogs with undocked tails are more likely to suffer injury as they run through thick undergrowth. There is no scientific evidence to support this claim and in fact studies have concluded that working dogs with undocked tails are not any more likely to sustain injury than dogs with docked tails. We only have to look at the wild to show that this argument is ludicrous. If having a long, bushy tail was a handicap when running through thick undergrowth or into burrows than the dog's wild cousins, foxes and wolves, would have lost their tails through evolution. This is another example of man thinking that he knows better than Mother Nature, he does not.

The new Animal Welfare Bill will ban cosmetic tail docking but still allow tail docking for working dogs. However, having such an exemption will make any enforcement very difficult and therefore the RCVS, BVA and many other veterinary associations and animal welfare charities still campaign for a total ban of non-therapeutic tail docking. a campaign that I support. You can write to your MP stating that you wish to see a total ban of tail docking and do a google search (using the facility above) for links to the various campaign groups.

Cosmetic tail docking has already been banned in several European countries.

Now, it is true that we do have dogs with their tails docked but that was done before we acquired them and we do not dock the tails of any of the puppies that we have had.