STOP DEVOCALIZATION NOW
A Project of International Society for Animal
Rights
Unknown to most custodians of dogs and cats and
the public at large, there is a widespread practice in the United States of
surgically cutting the vocal cords of canines (and, less often, felines).
That's correct: cutting their vocal cords.
This mutilating procedure when not performed for
the medical benefit of dogs and cats but instead for the convenience of humans,
must be ended throughout the United States. And it must be
ended now!
To accomplish that goal, International Society
for Animal Rights has created our stand-alone Stop Devocalization Now
Project, dedicated to helping those who are willing and able to engage in
the legislative-lobbying actions that ISAR, as a not-for-profit 501(c)(3)
corporation, can not directly perform.
While commonly known by the euphemism
"debarking," synonyms for cutting a dog's or cat's vocal cords include
"devocalization," "silencing," "bark softening," "cutting the vocal chords"--
and by the formal medical term "ventriculocordectomy." (In this
announcement, as shorthand I'll use dogs and the term "devocalization" as
examples.)
Now for the gruesome details.
A dog is devocalized by having her vocal cord soft tissue cut by the
veterinarian making a surgical incision in the dog's neck, or by inserting tools
through her mouth.
The consequences for devocalized dogs can
be, and often are, horrific. For example, breathing can become a
struggle for devocalized animals because of airway obstruction, which in turn
can cause a later administration of anesthesia for legitimate medical reasons to
be problematic. A dog can choke on food, inhale vomit into her
lungs, choke, gag, cough. Scar tissue buildup can require multiple
surgical procedures. And more.
The devocalization procedure can cause
severe blood loss and infection.
Police -- anyone, for that matter --
encountering a devocalized dog trained to attack will have no
warning.
It has been reported that a devocalized dog is more likely to be dumped or surrendered to a shelter, adding to the already serious overpopulation problem. Indeed, it has been reported also that in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts shelters received many devocalized animals before the practice (with a narrow exception) was outlawed.
There is much more to be said about the medical
aspects of devocalization, but just what I've said so far should suffice to
demonstrate that devocalization is cruel, brutal, dangerous -- let alone immoral
-- in its treatment of animals as if they were simply inanimate objects to be
used and abused by humans without regard to their ability to experience pain and
their need to live natural lives.
By devocalizing a dog, the veterinarian's knife
assaults not only the animal, but its ability to communicate -- and the idea of
a humane society that humans should strive for.
Putting aside body language, the only
other way an animal can communicate is through vocalization. Sever that ability
literally and figuratively, and the animal has no means to convey its mental
state to other animals and humans. It lacks the ability to control the tone,
intensity and frequency of its voice. Lacking that, the dog cannot communicate
fear, aggression, danger, pain -- everything the animal "knows." To get a sense
of what devocalization means to a dog or any other animal, one need
only ask a mute human being what he's deprived of because of his inability to
speak.
In order to precipitate a national
discussion about devocalization, and to arm those likeminded people and
organizations such as International Society for Animal Rights who want to end
the practice, ISAR has created the Stop Devocalization Now
Project.
We will provide all information possible
about devocalization, including but not limited to links containing the
following:
Aspects of
Devocalization
Medical
Ethical
Behavioral
Opponents and
proponents
Activism
ISAR's Model
Anti-Devocalization Statute
Suggested Letter-to-the-Editor
and others
Veterinarian/behaviorist
non-devocalization support and pledge
Initiative and
referendum
Petitions
Anti-devocalization efforts
abroad
Australia
Elsewhere
Law
and Legislation
Existing domestic
anti-devocalization legislation
Massachusetts
New
Jersey
Warwick,
Rhode Island
Newtown,
Ohio
Ohio
Pending anti-devocalization
legislation
California
Virginia
Failed anti-devocalization
legislative attempts
California
New
York
Cranston,
Rhode Island
Congress
Lobbying
Cases related to
anti-devocalization legislation
Constitutionality of
anti-devocalization legislation
Public
Education
Anti-devocalization videos
ISAR's potential
supporters are literally countless. Our constituents are
every dog and cat that is a potential victim of the scalpel.
Potential activists are the many good people throughout the United States
who understand the nature of devocalization, and are willing to work to end
it.
We are actively seeking
volunteers to work legislatively to end devocalization.
As a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit
organization, ISAR cannot lobby for or against the enactment of
legislation. However, we can support those who are willing to
fight for legislation that will end devocalization throughout the United
States.
A volunteer's task is not
difficult:
- The ISAR volunteer should identify a sympathetic legislator(s) on a municipal, county or state level;
- The ISAR volunteer should make the legislators aware of and provide to him or her the material contained in this website, especially ISAR's Model Anti-Devocalization Statute;
- The ISAR volunteer should encourage the legislators to solicit as many co-sponsors as possible in support of ISAR's Model Statute;
- The ISAR volunteer, once the bill is introduced and assigned to a committee, should identify sympathetic members of that committee and seek their support for the bill.
Ideally, the bill's sponsor and/or at
least one co-sponsor will have some leverage with the committee chairperson and
legislative leadership so that the proposed legislation will get out of
committee and obtain a majority vote of the legislature. (At http://isaronline.org/programs/stop-devocalization-now/lobbying/ we have provided a lengthy Table of
Contents for NIFAA president and author, Julie Lewin's book entitled Get
Political for Animals and Win the Laws They Need, which contains detailed
information and instruction about how to lobby on behalf of
animals.)
ISAR knows there are willing
anti-devocalization advocates in legislative bodies throughout the United
States, but we can't find them. But volunteers can.
And, as we have learned, in
Massachusetts, New York and elsewhere, there are powerful legislative enemies of
efforts to end the barbaric practice of devocalization.
But with the help of
likeminded people, whose volunteer
participation we
sincerely solicit, this is one battle
dogs and cats can win.
Sincerely,
Susan Dapsis
President,
ISAR
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