ChevellesMomma wrote:If you don't like it, you should write to the kennel clubs and request that crooked ears be allowed and not faulted, but don't gripe at the people that do it because they want their dogs to place.
Dogs with natural ears do win in the show ring, we have many natural eared dogs on this forum who do very well in the show ring. And even ShadowWolf's bat eared girl does well in the show ring:

I admire people who show natural eared dogs, I'm sure it's harder in those registries where cropped ears are still preferred, but it's not impossible. Plus I really like a nice ear set on a dog, with cropping you just hide all the possible flaws. Oh and in Europe it's illigal to show cropped dogs in some countries, I'm sure sooner or later other countries will follow so there won't be any need to crop a dog for show reasons anymore.
It is not a painful procedure at all.
Really? Let me see you cut off a part of your ear and still say that it's not painful at all. Common sense tells you that cutting off a part of your body IS VERY painful.
As far as the hunting dogs argument heartbullies said it nicely, most hunting breeds aren't cropped, some are docked, but it's proving to be unnecessary. If the main argument to cut off parts of a dog's body is the risk of them getting those parts injured, then we could amputate legs, because they can get broken, or pull out teeth because teeth also get broken all the time.. It doesn't make sense.
I used to be all for cropping, I was dead set on getting a show bred Amstaff puppy with cropped ears. I still think it looks good on certain breeds like Dobies, Amstaffs and Dogos. But then this little dumbo eared shelter dog came into my life and changed my view on things completely. The more I got to know her, the more I saw how important ears actually are. I can get all the information I need about what's she's about to do and what's she's feeling and thinking just by looking at the position of her ears, she's really expressive with those huge things

The same goes for her tail, it's much harder to read a dog who just has a little stub instead of a tail. At least for me. Mainly for that reason I would never crop a dog. Plus I prefer natural ears on an APBT.
The other reason is that it's an unnecessary surgery, it's painful, risky and serves no purpose. I really wish people would stop justifying it with lame excuses like showing and injuries.. Just admit that a cropped/docked dog LOOKS better to you and you're willing to put a dog through a painful procedure just because of that. It's a purely cosmetic surgery, nothing more than that (except in those rare cases where it's done out of health reasons).