Warwickshire man banned from keeping dogs after images exposed illegal ear-cropping on XL bully dogs
A man from Nuneaton has been banned from keeping animals for 15 years, after he posted images on social media which exposed the fact he'd illegally cropped his dog's ears.
It come as new figures released by the RSPCA show that the West Midlands is the ear-cropping capital of the UK - with 93 cases reported since 2020.
A report was made to the RSPCA about the man's two XL Bully dogs having cropped ears.
Police and an RSPCA animal rescue officer visited the property on Wednesday 28 September 2022 with a search warrant.
They discovered an ear splint and a blood splatter across the dining room wall - believed to be from a dog shaking it's head.
A notebook was found on the man’s bed, with his Instagram profile name written on the first page, and also including a brief family history of each puppy along with “£5,500” written underneath their names.
Research by the RSPCA’s intelligence team concluded that images on the man’s social media pages of XL bully puppies - with their ears intact - were the same dogs.
Enquiries also showed that the man had deleted posts, including images of the dogs as puppies and that the dogs had been sold to him with their ears intact.
At a sentencing hearing at Warwick Crown Court heard last month, the man was given a 15-year ban on keeping animals alongside an 18-week prison sentence, suspended for 18 months.
The West Midlands is the ear-cropping capital of the UK, according to new figures released by animal charity RSPCA.
93 dogs in the region are reported to have had their ears cropped between 2020 and 2023 - with 1,100 dogs nationally.
The animal welfare charity has released figures as part of its Cancel Out Cruelty campaign - to raise awareness about how to stop cruelty to animals for good - and to highlight the procedure which, in many cases, is carried out illegally in the UK.
Why do people crop dog's ears?
Cropping, or cutting, the ears of a dog is illegal in the UK.
The RSPCA says the sole purpose of ear-cropping is to make a dog look "tough" or appear "glamorous".
It can also lead to puppies with cropped ears being sold for additional money.
Dr Samantha Gaines, dog welfare expert at the RSPCA, said: “Ear cropping is a painful and unnecessary practice in which a dogs’ ears are removed or surgically altered and sadly many owners who do this do it because they think the look is glamorous or it makes their pet look tough.
“But it can be detrimental, in the short and long term, to their health, behaviour and welfare - they do not benefit from having it done, and the way it is illegally carried out in the UK - by people who are not vet professionals - is highly likely to lead them to suffer.”
What's been done to tackle ear-cropping?
Despite it being illegal in the UK, there are social media accounts which promote the practice.
It isn’t illegal to import a dog with cropped ears into the country - making it harder to prove illegal cropping at home and leaving a loophole for owners to source dogs with cropped ears from abroad.
The UK Government had pledged to ban the import of dogs with cropped ears as part of its Kept Animals Bill - but that was scrapped in May.
The RSPCA is urging Ministers to find a viable alternative plan to ban it as soon as possible and is also asking people to write to their MP asking for an urgent change on importing dogs with cropped ears.