Ironically, on another web board, I just heard a girl who said she would never, ever dock poor Poopsy's tail just because she liked how it looked tail turn right around and say that she would spay a female dog ASAP because the heats were disgusting. Such bull. Can't tolerate it. If she can do that, I can dock my dog to keep from knocking my coffee off the coffee table with his tail. I don't care if her dog gets potential, incidental health benefits from it; for her to criticize me for the latter and do the former for the same reasons is wrong.
You can't clip the dog's tail but you can cut out the sex organs. There's no good reason to send a dog to catch a dangerous boar, but there's a good reason to send him against a raving lunatic with a gun... and on, and on, and on, ad nauseam.
Now it's just old. No one's made any compelling arguments and I doubt they will.
Emily I happen to like you, but this is so ridiculous and I know your intellient enough to now why. There are societal benefits and health benefits to spaying and neutering while there are none for docking and cropping. Saying you crop ears to prevent shredding from a wild boar literally makes me,lol. An ear injury while superficial and mostly aesthetic is not usually going to be life threatening if taken care of. Tusks going through the dog however is. A dogs tail knocking over your coffee is annoying, but does not harm you, the dog, or society. However, a hormonal dog getting loose to do the deed is a dog not in his right mind. He may just run in front of car, bite someone, or spread his/her weak genes to the closest dog in the neighborhood creating more unwanted muts.
I agree if the owner wants to dock or crop their dog its their choice and not animal cruelty in the least. However, I do not feel the procedure of docking and cropping is even close to being related to spaying or neutering a dog. You bring up osteosarcoma as a reason not to spay/neuter and I have to think you have researched this. Compared to prostate, uterine, or cervical cancer osteosarcoma is EXTREMELY rare in dogs and most dogs are fixed leading me to rationally assume spaying/neutering is not the cause of this cancers development in whole, or else this would be a more common cancer in dog populations.
I have no problem with you cropping ears and not spaying or neutering your dogs, but your logic behind these decisions is bunk. There are few absolutes in life so if you feel your way is beneficial to your dogs thats exactly what you should do, but getting on someones case for having a problem with cropping and then spaying her dog is irrational. Docking/cropping= aesthetic pleasure and norm conformity for specific breeds and spay/neutering= population control, genetic integrity, and an easier animal to live with