Ear Cropping APBT

Historically, cropping was performed on working dogs in order to decrease the risk of health complications, such as ear infections or hematomas. Crops were also performed on dogs that might need to fight, either while hunting animals that might fight back or while defending livestock herds from predators, or because they were used for pit-fighting sports such as dogfighting or bear-baiting.[5][6] The ears were an easy target for an opposing animal to grab or tear.[5]

Cropping the ears of livestock guardian dogswas, and may still be, traditional in some pastoral cultures. The ears of working flock-defense dogs such as the Caucasian Shepherd Dog (Kavkazskaïa Ovtcharka)[7] and the Pastore Maremmano-Abruzzese were traditionally cropped to reduce the possibility of wolves or aggressor dogs getting a hold on them.[8] According to one description, cropping was carried out when puppies were weaned, at about six weeks. It was performed by an older or expert shepherd, using the ordinary blade shears used for shearing, well sharpened. The ears were cut either to a point like those of a fox, or rounded like those of a bear. The removed auricles were given to the puppy to eat, in the belief that it would make him more "sour";[8] the ears were first grilled.[9]An alternative method was to remove the ears from newborn puppies by twisting them off; however, this left almost no external ear on the dog.[8] More than three hundred years ago, both ear-cropping and the use of spiked collars were described as a defense against wolves by Jean de la Fontaine in Fable 9 of Book X of the Fables, published in 1678.[10]

Dogs may have their ears cropped, legally or not, for participation in dogfights, themselves illegal in many jurisdictions