The trend of performing cosmetic surgery on pets to round their ears and make them resemble those of Disney’s Mickey Mouse is causing controversy in China.
For 300 yuan (38 euros), a veterinary clinic in the central city of Chongqing, for example, is offering “Mickey ear” operations for pets as a “special offer” with the arrival of the Chinese New Year, according to the South China newspaper. Morning. Publish newspaper.
The offer illustrates a trend that is causing outrage among animal rights defenders, who are calling for a ban on these types of operations due to the physical and psychological harm they can cause, especially to dogs and cats.
The operation, legal in China, consists of two phases: the first, which lasts half an hour and is performed under anesthesia, consists of surgically trimming the animal’s ears to round them; The second consists of “styling” its shape so that the auditory appendage remains upright.
Plastic surgery for dogs and cats to have Mickey Mouse ears raises concernhttps://t.co/704h9nnDqh
– South China Morning Post (@SCMPNews) December 27, 2023
Quoted by SCMP, Liu Yudong, director of the Loving Care International veterinary center in Beijing, said the second phase lasts between 20 and 60 days and requires “frequent adjustments” to ensure the ears remain straight.
Although it has become fashionable, Liu said the procedure is rarely performed in veterinary clinics in big cities, although it is done in kennels.
“It’s a moral issue,” he said, adding that he and his colleagues strongly oppose this type of surgery because their primary professional obligation is to work for the welfare of animals.
Several professionals also warned about the impact of this practice on the physical and mental health of companion animals, from the risks of anesthesia to the possibility of animals developing self-harming behaviors due to pain, warned Chen Young of Lianhe Veterinary Hospital. , in the city of Shenzhen, in the southeast of the country.
Several Chinese netizens also criticized this new trend.
“If the owners think it’s so adorable, let them cut off its ears,” said one user on the Weibo social network. Another called the practice “animal abuse, not love.”
Source: TSF
