  As you may be aware, tail docking has been banned in Victoria since 1st April 2004. All other States in Australia have now outlawed tail docking. This decision was brought about largely by ill-informed politicians and minority animal activist groups and also the RSPCA. Most of the politicians and the members of the animal activist groups have never witnessed a tail docking procedure carried out by a qualified veterinary surgeon and I am sure if they had, they would be quite surprised. It is a quick and painless procedure and the puppies are back with their dam and happily suckling immediately after.  In 33 years of owning and breeding 15 litters of Weimaraners, we have never lost a single puppy to the tail docking procedure. Having witnessed, firsthand, injuries to tails to three adult, undocked dogs working in the field, I can assure you it is a shocking sight. One dog sustained a broken tail and endured extreme pain whilst being transported to the nearest vet surgery (some two hours away) for emergency surgery. The other two dogs were working in heavy cover and the tips of their tail were shredded and ended up a dreadful mess. One of these dogs had to have his tail amputated. This is a major operation in an adult dog, requiring a general anaesthetic and a lengthy and painful recovery period. These are just some of the awful incidents which can happen to a traditionally docked breed and I am sure there are many hundreds more stories to tell. The majority of Silvasheen-bred dogs have gone to people who use their dogs in the field - i.e. hunted over. We feel very strongly about the tail docking issue and prefer our Weimaraners to be docked, however we will begrudgingly adhere to the law of not docking our puppies, albeit with very strong reservations. It is interesting to note that a puppy from our first undocked litter in 30+ years, whelped in January 2010, has sustained an injury to his tail and may require docking in the future. (see photos below)   Above: Blood on the walls from Zak's damaged tail....
Zak's tail was injured by hitting it against the door..   Above: Zak with his bandaged tail. Thankfully, it didn't require
amputation, however Zak's tail was bandaged for 5 weeks and it required constant attention, as one whack against anything would have triggered the bleeding off again. It is interesting to see that the vet has bandaged Zak's tail commencing at what is considered to be the natural docking point in Weimaraners ! Up until Zak's injury, we have never had a docked puppy injure its tail - very much food for thought here we think. Please note: the above comments are from a purely personal opinion perspective. We are quite happy to discuss any aspect of tail docking with anyone at any time. DIANNE & CHRIS BROWN - SILVASHEEN WEIMARANERS |
