Petside.com has posted an article with some good news for dogs who like to speak their minds. The Massachusetts House has just passed a Bill that bans the practice of devocalization in dogs. Devocalization in dogs is a surgical procedure where a dog’s vocal cords are cut. The procedure eliminates a dog’s ability to bark. Read more by following the link below.
Here is a video which, goes into more detail about de-barking and the complications. Warning: It’s sad.
What are your thoughts? Leave your comments here.
2 thoughts on “Massachussetts House Passes Dog De-Barking Ban Bill”
People against this don’t know what they are talking about. In the 5 yrs that we had our dog we went through 3 trainers, citronella and water collars and also electronic bark collars. All them failed. She LEARNED how to bark at a pitch (by trial and error) that would not set the SPRAY collars off, So we went electronic. She would squeal at that till it stopped. It made her bark more. Over $1000 on trainers. They all agreed, she barks out of nerves, it’s like a twitch. You can’t stop it. What were we to do? MOVE??? Get rid of her? She’s our baby girl. We couldn’t give her up and we didn’t want to move. So we drove to a specialist 3 hrs (each way) from us who specializes in debarking. Other than the long drive it was easy. She had no ill effect from it. She can still bark but it’s not as loud– though still pretty loud. She has NO idea anything has been done to her. She’s still the same dog. I would do it in a minute again now that I’ve been through it. I agree with the person in this who said, ‘if I had to give up my dog or get the surgery, I would choose the surgery’. People would rather kill a dog or give it to a shelter rather than feel bad about taking away the bark!? It’s like right-to-lifers who won’t spay/neuter a dog but they will throw the pups in the shelter to be gassed. If it keeps an animal with its family it’s worth doing. End of story.
Maybe if they had more qualified people locally to do it, then it wouldn’t be so bad. Problem is not enough doctors ARE qualified to do it! Sure it should be a last resort but people should NOT be condemned for doing it and wanting to keep their animal!
d. williams, I agree people shouldn’t shelter or kill their dogs due to a barking problem. It seems your experience with debarking is very different than what the people supporting this legislation have found. I’m glad to hear your baby girl hasn’t suffered any of the ill-effects described in this video. Thank you for sharing your experience.