Docking is
also a pseudo-
veterinary procedure (not all vets will do it, you really don't need a vet to do it) performed on some animals, in which a variable length of the animal's
tail is cut off, usually when the animals is just a few days old.
For dogs, the procedure has its origins in the neccecities of
hunting- a dog with a long tail had more (relatively) unneccessary
appenditure to get tangled up in
underbrush, and so the tail would be removed. Currently, a number of breeds of dog must have their tails docked in order to be shown as per
American Kennel Club regulations. Note: dogs use their tails to
communicate, cutting their tails off is at least partially akin to cutting off a human's
tongue.
For cows, docking was originally performed for
hygienic reasons, as
disease would spread from cow to
dairy worker when a cow got
urine on its bushy-tipped tail, flicked its tail around, and got small amounts of urine into the eyes of some poor guy sitting and
milking on a low stool. Currently some but not all cows are docked. Sheep are still usually docked in order that their very wooly tails not collect
feces and harbor
maggots.
See
cropping.