Evening Republican, Volume 59, Number 104, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 May 1917 — Cropping of Dogs’ Ears, Custom of Thousand Years. Stopped by Prince of Wales [ARTICLE]

Cropping of Dogs’ Ears, Custom of Thousand Years. Stopped by Prince of Wales

Queen Victoria, who must have owned many hundreds of dogs in the course of her long life, never permitted mutilation of any sort, terriers born in her kennels being allowed to retain their tails. Cropping of ears, which was altogether another matter, survived until within the memory of tuost of us. ar«d I can recall the concern caused by the edict of the Ken nd club i n a writer in C<iuntry Life says. Whatever difference there may have been in bringing public opinion up to this point was dlspeiled hy a letter from Ki ng Ed ward, then prince of Wales. His private secretary wrote: “I am desired by tlw prince of Wales to acknowledge the receipt of your communication and to inform you in reply that he has kept dogs for many years and frequently sends some of them on exhibitions, but that he has never allowed snv dog belonging to him to be mutilated. ills royal highness has always been opposed to this practice, which he considers causes unnecessary

suffering, ami it would give him much pleasure to hear that owners of dogs had agreed to abandon such an objectionable fashion.” Coming as it did from a royal gentleman who had been patron of the Kennel club from its Inception, this letter clinched the argument, and cropping went by the board, notwithstanding the effort of several German dog elubs to get the decision set aside a s fa r a s G rea t Da ire s were con corn pd. An u neropped Dane had a very ugly ITppearance,’ we were bld; inbreover, it was urged that the custom had been tn existence for a thousaird years ’ Some of us thought that a custom of such antiquity might very well he brought into conformity with modern ideas.