"I think inevitably that normalises this look and popularises the attractiveness of it," says BVA president James Russell. "What is concerning is that a lot of people are sort of endorsing this look and aren't actually realising that what they are sharing is something that is illegal in this country and is a huge welfare concern." "It's being driven very much by a shift in trend in the type of dogs that are being used in advertising, on social media, and that celebrities are posting on their channels," RSPCA spokesperson Amy Ockelford tells Sky News. The RSPCA has seen cases involving kitchen knives and scissors and says that in "underground" procedures the animals are often not given anaesthetic pain relief.Įxperts say one of the big reasons behind the increase is celebrity - stars and influencers sharing photographs of their own ear-cropped dogs on social media.
While this is currently legal, animal charities argue that any cropping is cruel and unnecessary and done purely for aesthetic reasons, and that imported cropped dogs fuel an increasing demand that ultimately leads to a rise in backstreet methods being used. However, many other dogs are being imported from other countries and sold on legitimately here. This is believed to have taken place illegally in the UK. The procedure on Zeus and his siblings was an extreme case and the owner was sentenced to 14 weeks in prison in May after pleading guilty to permitting the cropping, admitting he had paid £3,000 for someone else to carry it out.