Ear tipping is aesthetically unacceptable to some people. So what! – I hear you say. Ear tipping makes a cat look less attractive. This may be important because a good percentage of cats that are trapped, spayed and neutered are domestic cats who are strays. They have a home and an owner. The owner may be reunited with her cat. She may be upset by the mutilated left ear and reject her cat. In a study of the roaming outside cats of Florida University, 25% of the cats were domesticated. They weren’t feral cats.
I don’t know of any research on this but I would expect that shelter managers would assume that any ear tipped cat brought to the shelter was feral. In which case he or she would normally be euthanised. Ear tipping is “branding” a cat. It places the cat amongst a lower class of cats. Yes, I believe there is a class structure among cats (from a human perspective). Ear tipping could be a death sentence to a cat. Although, perhaps, I am being a bit extreme in stating that.
Also, sometimes local humane societies run free spay/neuter clinics. I presume – and correct me if I am wrong – that people can walk their cats in and get them sterilized. One person did this and made a donation to the charity. When he came back his three indoor cats had been ear tipped. From the picture you see below, I have to conclude that the ear tipping was carried out in a heavy-handed way:
I don’t understand why the vets ear tipped indoor cats. It may have been a mistake or they decided to ear tip all cats in the clinic undergoing spay and neuter operations that day.
Ear tipping is probably the only viable way to identify a spayed and neutered feral cat because you can see from a distance that the cat has been a recipient of a TNR (trap-neuter-return) program. Other forms of identification such as a tattoo would probably require sedation which may be impractical.
The fact of the matter is that the “collateral damage” of ear tipping, making a cat look less attractive, must be accepted by people who let their cats stray too much and who are subsequently caught in a TNR program (alternatively called Trap-Neuter-Return-Monitor (TNRM)). That would be the argument by 99% of the population.
Apparently, there are no medical problems with ear tipping. Cats don’t suffer and don’t even feel irritation in the ear when they wake up from the spay or neuter operation.
RELATED: Is ear tipping cruel?
Here’s a wild suggestion as an alternative to ear tipping. The vet could clip into the left ear a small brightly colored plastic tag, which could be removed with a tool by a vet if the cat was a wandering domestic cat and the cat’s owner was upset or a feral cat was adopted. Such a tag could be seen at a distance.
If the ear tipping is heavy-handed, as shown in the picture, I wonder whether hearing is affected slightly on that side? Theoretically, it should be because the ear flap collects sound and directs it down the ear canal to the eardrum. In theory, at least, removal of part of the ear flap would make the ear slightly less effective. This may affect the cat very slightly.
A veterinarian writing on the PET MD website states that many pet owners are reluctant to adopt cats with a part of their left ear missing. They say that it negatively impacts their natural beauty. He thinks that ear tipping should be customised to fit the ‘status’ or circumstances of the cat. If it’s a stray cat entering an adoption program and that cat has been through a TNR program previously then perhaps it is better not to ear tip if it’s reasonable to presume that this individual cat has a home waiting for him.
However, most veterinarians insist on ear tipping and they refuse apparently to perform low-cost feline sprays and neuters without doing it! I’m not sure if this veterinarian is joking a bit but perhaps the bottom line is that the benefits of ear tipping outweigh the cosmetic downsides. If a domestic but stray cat gets ear tipped it is collateral damage, sadly.
Note: This is a video from another website. Sometimes they are deleted at source which stops them working on this site. If that has happened, I apologise but I have no control over it.
Note: this page was written in Nov 2013, 8 ears ago and has been upgraded slightly and republished on Dec 3rd, 2021.
SOME MORE ON EAR TIPPING:
This is absolutely ridiculous and cruel, just found out about it. Any vet that does this should lose their license! All they would need is a universal color collar that represents spay/neuter like bright purple or green.This cruelty must end !!!
i simply just hate it
WHAT THE WHAT -WHAT ON EARTH- ITS JUST NOT CIVILIZED IM TALKING ABOUT EAR TIPPING IN CATS THESE PRECIOUS LITTLE DARLINGS EARS
BE IT KNOWN-IN MY DEFENCE FOR THESE CATS -WITH EVIDENCE- “ACCORDING” TO “VETERINARY LAWW” EARTIPPING FALLS UNDER COSMETIC SURGERY AND PERFOMED “ECLUSIVELY” FOR “MEDICAL” REASONS THEREFORE ACCORDING TO VETERINARY THEORY/IF THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THE CATS EAR WHY PERFORM THIS SURGERY – THEY ARE PERFORMING THIS SURGERY WITHOUT MEDICAL GROUNDS WITHOUT A THOUGHT OR CONSIDERATION -THATS INSANITY IN VETERINARY CARE
THERE IS NO LEGITIMATR REASON TO PERFORM THIS PROCEDURE = DAMAGES TO CATS HOW CAN WE HELP THESE CATS I CANNOT DO THIS ALONE LETS DO THIS TOGETHER -HELP- THESE CATS KEEP THEIR EARS ON THEIR HEADS -SPCA AND HUMANE SOCIETIES CANNOT JUST CHOPP OFF THIER EARS AND THROW THEM IN THE GARBAGE CATS THEY NEED THIER EARS ON THEIR HEADS — IM BEZURRK OVER IT -CATS EARS MATTER/ THIS HAS CAUSES US TRAUMA OUR KIDS TRAUMA -MY FRIENDS CHILD WAS SO TRAUMATIZED HE WAS LOOKING FOR THE CATS EARS -MOM JUBE JUBE LOSTS HIS EARS/ THE CHILD IS INCONSOLABLE ITS TIME TO PUT THIS PRACTICE TO REST / FOR THE GOOD OF ALL CATS AND HUMANS
A MFTHE LAW- THEY DO HAVE A DEFENCE THEY ARE PROTECTED UNDER VETERINARY LAW- ITS DONE OUTSIDE PRACTICES OF VETERINARY LAW – LETS GET THAT STRAIGHT
SO PEOPLE WHAT YOUR SEEING AND FEELING IS CORRECT – ITS A HANOUS HIDIOUS CRIME THAT CHANGES TO AN “EXTREME” THE CATS APPEARANCE. \
HOWEVER THIS CRIME IS INSERTED INSIDE THE VETERINARY PRACTICES
MOST VETS WONT PERFORM THIS PROCEDURE BECASUE THEY “KNOW’ IS A NO-NO AND AGAINST VETRINARY LAW- ITS PRACTICED OUTSIDE THE LAW
YET IT REMAIS IN THE POLICIES OS SPCAS AND HUMANE SOCIETIES COVINCING VETS TO PERFOM IT VETS A RE INVOLVED THEY HAVE TO STOP IT BUT NOT ONE VET COME TO THEIR DEFENCE
PLASTIC SURGERY IS USED AS AN “IDENTIFICATION’ STRATEGY IN FEROL SPAYED / NEUTERED CATS –WHO SAYS WHO CAME UP WITH IDEA MAKE MY BLOOD STOP IN HORROR IS NOT SUPPORTED BY VETERINARY LAW NOR RECOMMENDED IN CATS
ITS A CRIME -HOW DARE THIS HAPPEN TO THE BELOVED EARS OF CATS- AND HOW DARE THIS HAPPEN AND STILL
MOST VETS WILL NOT PERFORM THIS PROCEDURE
IVE CONTACTED- WRITTEN LETTERS TO COUNCIL
VETERINARY COLLEGES /ADMIMISTRATIONS OF VETRINARY LAWS INTERNATIONALLY
IN MY DEFENCE
I CANT LIVE WITH IT FOR THEM THEY HAVE SO LITTLE ON THE EARTH AND GIVE SO MUCH TO US LETS
PLEASE CONTACT ME dotresearch1986@gmail.com lets BANN EAR TIPPING IN CATS BECUASE CATS EARS MATTER
AUSTRAILIA BANNED EAR TIPPING IN 2021 BECAUSE THEY DONT BELIEVE IT HELPS THANK YOU JESUS AUSTRAILIA REALIZED IT..LETS FOLLOW IN THEIR FOOTSTEPS SEE HOW THY DID IT AND COPY CAT
“This is information that literally a 30 second Google search would have given you, had you bothered to look” – what is the point of saying that?
I did not say whether aesthetics is a good reason or not. I’m just making the point that the tipping looks aesthetically much less good than no ear tipping. It’s a simple issue. And this post is not ridiculous. I am simply making a point, a subjective point. It is my opinion. I am entitled to have my opinion on my own website.
You are being rude. I care more about cats than you can imagine. I’ve given away thousands of pounds on cat welfare. I have spent tens of thousands of hours writing about cats with the objective of improving cat welfare. I think you need to do your research not me.
I will allow one more comment in response to mine if you want to make one. Thereafter you will be banned because you are rude and ignorant.
Ear tags were attempted in the early days of TNR. The tags would fall or be ripped off, which made them both useless for identification of altered cats and a potential health risk to the cats when ripped off.
This is information that literally a 30 second Google search would have given you, had you bothered to look.
Aesthetics are not a good reason to oppose ear tipping. Maybe as the more introspective species, we humans could get the f*** over it and embrace ear tipped cats, whether feral or socialized.
This post and everyone supporting it are utterly ridiculous.
Try caring more about cat’s lives than you do about your own squeamishness or imagined photography skills.
Thanks Heidi. I do realise that what you write is correct. I am just commenting on it.