Earmarking,good or bad

[blueyhills]

This week i had some pups earmarked and the steward who done the earmarking did a very good and professional job.

However i asked him,in this day and age with modern technology,i.e. microchipping and the like, why should we put a young pup through the pain and distress of having their ear tatood?They dont like it and get very upset.

He answered that " if earmarking was the worse thing that happened to a dog in his life it wouldnt be much of a price to pay".

I believe that earmarking was introduced to stop fraudulent activity but now we have alternative methods of detection, why put pups through this?

[Deleted]

Totally agree. Since the advent of micro-chipping, it seems like something of a pointless exercise. It would mean though, that pups would need to be chipped very early and not when they begin racing as at present.

[Deleted]

I guess with modern tech though you could argue that a chip could be cloned. Difficult to mess with the tattoo bar removing the ear

[BVADMIN]

The main problem with chipping a very young pup is by the time it's 12/15 months old the chip could/will have moved.

It's not full proofed with older greyhounds either I no of one instance where the chip decided to wander and was located a long way from where it was inserted in a racing greyhound recently.

I see no problem myself with the tried and trusted method of ear-marking but I can fully understand where your coming from Tony.

I myself have assisted the ear-marking steward on many occasions over the years and in most cases things have always gone well and within a few minutes the pups seem none the worse and sometimes it's the breeder who gets more upset than the pups.

[blueyhills]

Jun 22, 2013 18:21:17 GMT BVADMIN said:

The main problem with chipping a very young pup is by the time it's 12/15 months old the chip could/will have moved.

It's not full proofed with older greyhounds either I no of one instance where the chip decided to wander and was located a long way from where it was inserted in a racing greyhound recently.

I see no problem myself with the tried and trusted method of ear-marking but I can fully understand where your coming from Tony.

I myself have assisted the ear-marking steward on many occasions over the years and in most cases things have always gone well and within a few minutes the pups seem none the worse and sometimes it's the breeder who gets more upset than the pups.

Jimmy i agree with you on a lot of your points but i think you are trivialising what the pup has to go through, i know they get over it in a matter of hours, some even minutes and you are probably right about the breeder getting as much upset but i am just saying in this day and age their shouldnt be any need to hurt the pup when there could be alternatives.

By the way why do we have microchipping if earmarks are sufficient?

I have also known of earmarks to be changed so nothing is full proof.

[BVADMIN]

Quite true Tony and as you say nothing is full proof these days.