Tattooed dogs sold to labs with amputated ears

[snopes]

Comment: This isn't exactly new to me, and I haven't seen it on the
internet. However I heard it repeated again last weekend by a former vet
tech with a veterinarian nodding in agreement.

Folks are no longer tattooing dog's ears for identification because
[here's the legend part] there are bad guys who steal dogs and sell them
to research facilities. When they steal a dog with an ear tattoo, they
cut off the ear.

I'm a dog breeder, active with hundreds of dog owners, and nobody can give
me more than sister's friend's cousin's co-worker for a reference.

My wife is a veterinarian who has heard the story multiple times, with no
back-up.

We recently purchased a pup with a tattoo for ID and the tattoo was on the
inner thigh, why? "So the dog thieves can't cut it off."

[Cervus]

I believe dogs are tattooed in the inner thigh or on the abdomen because there's usually less fur there and it's easier to read the tattoo.

[Seaboe Muffinchucker]

I read this thread title as dogs with tattoos being sold to other dogs without ears. Very bizarre image, that.

Seaboe

[Mama Duck]

Originally Posted by Seaboe Muffinchucker

I read this thread title as dogs with tattoos being sold to other dogs without ears. Very bizarre image, that.

Seaboe

Imagine my confusion. I was trying to picture medical/research labs without ears. Of course, what they were doing with ears to begin with is anyone's guess.

[RivkahChaya]

Me, I thought a bunch of Labrador Retrievers without ears were buying stray dogs with tattoos.

[Magdalene]

While I'm not saying this hasn't/couldn't happen....Dazzle and Summer, like a majority of greyhounds have their litter numbers and birthdates tattooed in their ears, and to amputate their ears to hide their identities would almost involve cutting out a great deal of their skulls, since their tats are pretty 'far down' in their ears.

Granted, doing such a thing might not bother a person who'd cut off the ears in the first place...

If I think on it, I'll try and post pictures of their ears later, but I don't know how well I'd catch the tattoos, especially in Summer's case, since her 'inner ears' are so dark that the ink of the tattoos is kind of hard to see anyway.

Magdalene

[Zekaerio]

Originally Posted by Mama Duck

Imagine my confusion. I was trying to picture medical/research labs without ears.

I actually find picturing medical/research labs without ears to be quite easy.

[charlie23]

I believe dogs are tattooed in the inner thigh or on the abdomen because there's usually less fur there and it's easier to read the tattoo.

I did tattoos for a breeder at one time (using a standard tattoo gun, the process is probably different now that it's more widespread), and while it is a bit easier to do them on the thigh or abdomen the dog usually had to be anaesthetized. Ear tattoos could be done without anaesthesia in most cases and didn't seem to bother them much.
From what I read now (just a quick google browse) abdominal tattooing seems to be more common in the US, with ear tattooing still the norm in Europe.
I think most "research labs" would have more than a few questions though if people started bringing in dogs with chopped off ears.

[llewtrah]

Originally Posted by charlie23

I did tattoos for a breeder at one time (using a standard tattoo gun, the process is probably different now that it's more widespread), and while it is a bit easier to do them on the thigh or abdomen the dog usually had to be anaesthetized. Ear tattoos could be done without anaesthesia in most cases and didn't seem to bother them much.
From what I read now (just a quick google browse) abdominal tattooing seems to be more common in the US, with ear tattooing still the norm in Europe.
I think most "research labs" would have more than a few questions though if people started bringing in dogs with chopped off ears.

If I wanted to get my cats tattooed with ID, the ear is the place the vet would do it. Microchipping is more common (we have a good microchip register in the UK, not sure about a tattoo register).

As for labs without ears - I have some photos of sheep without ears. Weird.

[Tarquin Farquart]

Originally Posted by llewtrah

As for labs without ears - I have some photos of sheep without ears. Weird.

How do they hear? Terrible.

Hang on that isn't right...

I have never heard of this thigh tattooing. I guess that's because I don't buy expensive dogs.
Years ago we adopted a retired greyhound and he came with a tattoo inside his ear. There would have been no need for a lab to cut his ear off though if he was stolen as the tattoo was so faded and bled out by the time he was five that it was almost completely unreadable.
I'm not completely sure why the labs or thieves would even bother removing the dogs' tattooed ears. I have never heard of anyone ever pounding on a lab's door, demanding to be let in to look for their dog and if someone did try I'm not sure the lab would even legally have to allow them in. Plus the fact that if someone did find their one eared dog in a research facility and sued the lab (or whatever) they would probably have a lot of other proof (like photos showing the dog's markings) that this was indeed their dog and the cutting would be pointless.
To me this sounds like a mix of fact and fiction. As far as I know stolen pets do end up in labs sometimes and there are probably a million experiments that could end up with a dog losing an ear. Not to mention any sort of cutting or notching a lab might do to an animal's ears for identification purposes, so there probably are many one-eared dogs in labs. It just seems to me like they wouldn't bother doing it to hide the fact that the dog is stolen.
I can see it happening though. I just don't think it would be a universally accepted part of it. But then again I don't know much (or anything) about it.

[llewtrah]

Originally Posted by MiddleEye

I have never heard of this thigh tattooing. I guess that's because I don't buy expensive dogs.
Years ago we adopted a retired greyhound and he came with a tattoo inside his ear. There would have been no need for a lab to cut his ear off though if he was stolen as the tattoo was so faded and bled out by the time he was five that it was almost completely unreadable.

That brings to mind cases where ex-racing greyhounds have been illegally (and often inhumanely) killed and then dumped en masse in pits. The ears were removed so if the bodies are found, the dogs can't be identified or linked to particular owners. I don't think that was the case recently in Britain and the dogs were held to have been despatched humanely (shotgun) and buried in a pit on a farm.

I have seen a documentary or two on retired hounds and the various ways people rid themselves of them, but I didn't remember the bit about them cutting the ears off. It would be smart to do so though, since if Forensic Files has taught me anything it's this: If ever you bury something in the ground that you would rather stay there it'll surely resurface at some point and ruin all your well laid schemes.