Thread: Review of the Animal Welfare Act regarding Tail Docking

This matter is rearing its ugly head again and those of us with gundogs breeds which are historically docked may wish to participate in this debate.


Important Notice!

Tail Banding

This week the Government begins a series of workshops on the review of the Animal Welfare Act with
an event in Auckland. We know that the Companion Animal Society of the Veterinary Association
sip rearing to mount a serious assault on tail docking with the intention of having it banned. They
are collecting grisly photographs and horror stories of botched dockings and there is little doubt that
they will assemble an argument that will look pretty convincing to those who are not educated about
the true situation.

Executive Council is formulating a communications strategy that will be publicised shortly.

Please be aware that this is a serious situation for docked breeds and those of you with them face
the real possibility that docking will be outlawed. We can win the day though, if we work together to
educate those who need to know about tail banding as a safe and painless procedure when carried
out by a competent person under the auspices of the Accredited Banders’ Scheme administered by
the Council of Docked Breeds in conjunction with the NZKC.

If you do nothing however, then nothing will happen to stop the anti-docking lobby from succeeding.

So what to do? The immediate priority is the Auckland workshop which is happening on Friday the
3rd. You should write letters to the editors of the Herald and any other newspaper in the region,
both as Clubs and as individuals. By Thursday and Friday we should aim to have the subject of
docking making the ‘letters’ columns and promoting the view that

•
Docking is a legitimate process to protect breeds prone to tail injury
•
Irrefutable evidence exists that it is totally painless when performed by banding within 72
hours of birth
•
Dogs suffer no inconvenience or discomfort for lack of a tail
•
The bad-news stories told by the critics of banding are based on blade dockings and are irrelevant
to the present discussion, which is about safe and painless banding performed by accredited and
audited NZKC members
•
We respect the views of the sincere individuals and organisations opposed to docking but would
respectfully point out that their concerns about the procedure cannot be applied to banding
within the first three days of life when properly performed as this procedure has been proven
worldwide.
•
Be concise, be polite, and be persistent. Write yourself, help your club secretary to write on behalf
of the club, then get all of your friends to write.


Watch this blog and the NZKC web site for further details as the workshops move south through the
country. They will be held in Hamilton, Masterton, wellington, Christchurch and Invercargill.

Owen Dance

NZKC President

Lambs will be next if they succeed

Yes and can you imagine the agony with flystrike...?

Eebees tail banding ? That's the rubber band trick right ?. I can't see what the fuss is about , I helped on our gsp pups ( all 10) not one of them where bothered , in all honestly surprised me . Have got a mate on the other hand has a cocker the breeder was against docking his dogs tail is red raw on the end every hunting season . Rest of year is scabbed with no fir on tip ever

Munsey, I saw for myself a young GSP with a bleeding tail...yes banding, and yes the rubber band trick! The people against this I believe have little or no understanding of the work that gundogs do: we applaud our gundogs for their courage and determination where a great big old man gorse bush or blackberry patch holds no fear to them...the reason why the terriers were docked was that they have been known (long tailed ones) to break or maim their tails when backing out of warrens etc...I cannot see that the breeds which have been historically docked were initially docked out of some cruel whimsy!!!

And as you write, your mate's Cocker is destined to a life of agony...

I wonder why English Setters and Pointers always kept there tails ?aesthetics

hunted with a english setter on saturday............ it's tail was a red mess within a hour.

miy old English Setter would tail tip bleed but this one now is ok .My point is really a lot of docking is aesthetics more than maybe health in mind -I am a tail docking proponent for both reason though

Originally Posted by el borracho

I wonder why English Setters and Pointers always kept there tails ?aesthetics

Look at where English Setters and Pointers were hunted in their native land, wide open areas with little in the way of heavy cover so it was unnecessary. Spaniels were used in the heavy cover and consequently have docked tails.

Continental European gundog breeds ie weims, GSPs, GWPs etc worked heavier cover and were therefore docked for health reasons.

I have owned an American Pointer and hunted it periodically in moderately heavy cover. It's tail was always a mess. I have also hunted over some weims imported from Switzerland where docking was banned. They were a nightmare. I will never own another undocked hunting dog. I think it's very important for the welfare of the dogs.

from sat........ note the tail.

no problem with this little fire cracker mind

There's a number of dogs, even Labs, who have issues every week at Equine. I'll get some documentation photos on Saturday.

I'll play the devils adovcate with El borracho also.

I have owned largely undocked dogs, and never had a problem besides a bit of blood. No big deal. I sold an undocked dog once to a guy whosaid it constantly bled yet I had never had a single issue with it bleeding once. However, I am all for docking on the breeds that a traditionally docked because it is tradition. Problem is you can't sell that to the do-gooders who think it is cruel. Done early, it is painless. But ultimately, it is aesthetics, seeing a breed you are used to undocked looks bloody silly. Pun intended

This seems to come up yearly, I am glad people are sticking together on this one, hopefully for as long as people keep speaking up we will be able to dock.

for working spaniels it is not just for looks.
i'll admit however there is no reason for pet and show dogs to be docked, as many docked gundog breeds that hail from the ring have for many generations had the desire to actually work bred out of them, and while docking the tail can remove the risk of non hunting accidents for the resulting limp and curved tail i feel that even that can be fixed up with a breeding plan..... but aside from that the procedure is simple.
the english kennel club has taken a similar approach, pretty easy to police with working spaniels and terriers as the work/show split is there.
hpr's were a bit harder but they have rules for shows which mean those dogs that are docked under the working rule can't be shown in shows that charge an admission fee.

Good point, the rate at which a spaniels tail goes while working could render a dog airborne if undocked!

Kawhia that's interesting - so dogs proven to need it can still be docked in the UK? working spaniels and terriers etc? Like you say that would be hard to make work in HPRs, I would say the only damage most british HPRs (and possibly NZ?) would to to an undocked tail would be banging it on furniture - not working

yes they can be docked legally, except for scotland which followed swedens example.
what it did do was actuallly divide the hpr's into working and show.. some kennels over there still show and trial/work but the shows they can attend are limited....... hence the docked and denied movement over there.

worse case over here only the working kennels will follow the uk example, and for that to happen we need to get the spaniels onto different registers within the nzkc.