Before you freak out about this 2ga punched cartilage on this cat’s ear, which was done by a Connecticut veterinarian under anesthesia, please read Chelsea‘s explanation of what you’re seeing —
“This was done while she was under anesthesia because she was a member of an established feral cat colony that was going to be released back into the wild. The holepunch was supposed to signify that she has been spayed — they do this to control the population, as the cats usually are completely wild and un-adoptable. She was an anamoly and decided that she liked being a pet better!”
Comments
166 responses to “Dermal Punched Ear… On a cat!”
my dog has a tattoo on her stomach, I’m glad she has it, you can’t see the scar from her getting spayed AT ALL, so what if she was a stray and they couldn’t tell if she was spayed or not? of course that would never happen because she would never get lost, and has a microchip implanted (another great thing for pets but freaky for people). I love my dog being modified.
my dog has a tattoo on her stomach, I’m glad she has it, you can’t see the scar from her getting spayed AT ALL, so what if she was a stray and they couldn’t tell if she was spayed or not? of course that would never happen because she would never get lost, and has a microchip implanted (another great thing for pets but freaky for people). I love my dog being modified.
#74: My kitty, a former feral herself, has her tipped and it did not affect her one bit. They did the procedure when she was spayed and monitored it along with stitches on her belly. As to chipping vs. modding, microchipping is a way to reunite lost pets with owners, while tipping/notching/what have you is done solely to identify whether or not the animal has been spayed or neutered.
While I normally find modding animals stupid, cruel and unnecessary, I wholeheartedly support notching and tipping and the like. It’s a much better alternative then going through the routine of capturing the cat, taking to the vet, opening it up and find out it has already been fixed…or, worse, that it’s a male. Imagine the trauma if a cat had to go through that four or five times in its life. Plus rescue organizations are so underfunded as it is. If they had to haul the same cat to the vet multiple times just because they “weren’t sure,” they would cease to exist.
#74: My kitty, a former feral herself, has her tipped and it did not affect her one bit. They did the procedure when she was spayed and monitored it along with stitches on her belly. As to chipping vs. modding, microchipping is a way to reunite lost pets with owners, while tipping/notching/what have you is done solely to identify whether or not the animal has been spayed or neutered.
While I normally find modding animals stupid, cruel and unnecessary, I wholeheartedly support notching and tipping and the like. It’s a much better alternative then going through the routine of capturing the cat, taking to the vet, opening it up and find out it has already been fixed…or, worse, that it’s a male. Imagine the trauma if a cat had to go through that four or five times in its life. Plus rescue organizations are so underfunded as it is. If they had to haul the same cat to the vet multiple times just because they “weren’t sure,” they would cease to exist.
My dog has a tattoo on her ear, which is quite sad bacause I’ve yet to get a tattoo…My dogs cooler than me xD
My dog has a tattoo on her ear, which is quite sad bacause I’ve yet to get a tattoo…My dogs cooler than me xD
I see nothing wrong with a little hole punch or snip in the ear to help identify feral cats that have already been cared for. there are about 20 feral cats that live in an abandoned house next door to me. they are taken care of by people around the neighborhood, but they will not come to any of the people because they are so wild. And they keep mass producing so the population just keeps growing. i had tried to cat a kitten and it was severely traumatized. it screamed the whole time i had it and bit and scratched and just basically freaked out. so being caught several times could be very traumatic for these kitties. where as a little hole in the ear could help identify them quickly so they do not have to be caught again and have to go through the trauma.
I see nothing wrong with a little hole punch or snip in the ear to help identify feral cats that have already been cared for. there are about 20 feral cats that live in an abandoned house next door to me. they are taken care of by people around the neighborhood, but they will not come to any of the people because they are so wild. And they keep mass producing so the population just keeps growing. i had tried to cat a kitten and it was severely traumatized. it screamed the whole time i had it and bit and scratched and just basically freaked out. so being caught several times could be very traumatic for these kitties. where as a little hole in the ear could help identify them quickly so they do not have to be caught again and have to go through the trauma.
Glad to hear that a feral cat got to decide it wanted to be a house cat. It’s kinda cool that your area does Catch, Fix, and Release of the wild animals instead of killing.
Why is there so much controversy over “punching a hole in a feral CAT ear to ID it as fixed” from the same country (USA) where over half of “infant HUMAN boys are tied down and have part of their genitals mutilated and removed” under the term ‘circumcision’? I *REALLY* don’t get it. Nice to see feral cats have better lobbiests than our babies.
Glad to hear that a feral cat got to decide it wanted to be a house cat. It’s kinda cool that your area does Catch, Fix, and Release of the wild animals instead of killing.
Why is there so much controversy over “punching a hole in a feral CAT ear to ID it as fixed” from the same country (USA) where over half of “infant HUMAN boys are tied down and have part of their genitals mutilated and removed” under the term ‘circumcision’? I *REALLY* don’t get it. Nice to see feral cats have better lobbiests than our babies.
lol its always funny to see people freak out because they can’t see the forest through the trees as it were, ear clipping or punching makes sense, as it has been pointed out it allows for immediate identification of the individual as having been fixed already so they can be immediately released, to use a tattoo or microchip would require the animal to be removed from the cage and physically immobilized, besides the fact that that is DANGEROUS to do with a unhappy cat, it causes undue stress in ANY wild/feral animal that is not used to being handled – animals can actually go into shock and die from this! so if you think that is more humane then something that allows immediate ID than i have a nice bridge in new york to sell you.
as for microchip id tags in general, besides the aforementioned dangers from excess handling they are expensive, starting at 9$ US per tag if you buy them bulk, which most people don’t since its more work to sterilize and load them into an injector yourself, prepackaged ones in sterile disposable injectors like those used on pets cost $12-$16 dollars directly from the company. that adds up to be a lot of money very quickly! money which could be spent on fixing more animals in order to prevent future generation suffering from living in inappropriate habitats.
Building on #52 animals definitely don’t notice the “chips” after implantation, we can know this because there are people that have them to, they can feel where the tag is by feeling through the skin but the cant feel the tag itself. The implantation is also quick and simple, anyone with a 12 gauge piercing (same size needle as used in most tag implantations) can attest that it is a big needle but they don’t really hurt for more than a split second if that. The animals dislike being held down far more than the actual implanting – I should know i put them in platypuses 🙂
and FYI ID “microchips” as #52 said are not actually microchips at all, they are tiny coils of wire encased in solid glass. Glass in itself is entirely biocompatible and thus safe from reaction or rejection. new very expensive versions may be partially coated in special biopolymers (partially organic plastics basically) that promote the rapid adhesion of connective tissue to prevent migration, the chances of which are only significant in certain places on certain species of animals. The chips are read when a device emits a set radio frequency that then reflects back of the tags in a way that is unique to that tag, hence the full technical name of Passive Radio Frequency Identification Device.
lol its always funny to see people freak out because they can’t see the forest through the trees as it were, ear clipping or punching makes sense, as it has been pointed out it allows for immediate identification of the individual as having been fixed already so they can be immediately released, to use a tattoo or microchip would require the animal to be removed from the cage and physically immobilized, besides the fact that that is DANGEROUS to do with a unhappy cat, it causes undue stress in ANY wild/feral animal that is not used to being handled – animals can actually go into shock and die from this! so if you think that is more humane then something that allows immediate ID than i have a nice bridge in new york to sell you.
as for microchip id tags in general, besides the aforementioned dangers from excess handling they are expensive, starting at 9$ US per tag if you buy them bulk, which most people don’t since its more work to sterilize and load them into an injector yourself, prepackaged ones in sterile disposable injectors like those used on pets cost $12-$16 dollars directly from the company. that adds up to be a lot of money very quickly! money which could be spent on fixing more animals in order to prevent future generation suffering from living in inappropriate habitats.
Building on #52 animals definitely don’t notice the “chips” after implantation, we can know this because there are people that have them to, they can feel where the tag is by feeling through the skin but the cant feel the tag itself. The implantation is also quick and simple, anyone with a 12 gauge piercing (same size needle as used in most tag implantations) can attest that it is a big needle but they don’t really hurt for more than a split second if that. The animals dislike being held down far more than the actual implanting – I should know i put them in platypuses 🙂
and FYI ID “microchips” as #52 said are not actually microchips at all, they are tiny coils of wire encased in solid glass. Glass in itself is entirely biocompatible and thus safe from reaction or rejection. new very expensive versions may be partially coated in special biopolymers (partially organic plastics basically) that promote the rapid adhesion of connective tissue to prevent migration, the chances of which are only significant in certain places on certain species of animals. The chips are read when a device emits a set radio frequency that then reflects back of the tags in a way that is unique to that tag, hence the full technical name of Passive Radio Frequency Identification Device.
I would rather see the dermal punch than what a local vet did to a beautiful feral we trapped…she “whacked off” more than one third of the top of the ear. We had complained that the previous trapped feral had been “overclipped”; jagged and crooked!! This little girl we trapped had apparently been done a few months before. We had paid to not clip the ear in hopes of socializing and having her adopted.This failed and she was released. She did enter a trap again. When we brought her to the vet, we explained that she “possibly had been spayed a few months before…please look for the scar” The vet obviously wanted to make a point to us…the kitty was reopened and the ear was mutiliated! Needless to say, we shall not take our trapped cats or OUR PERSONAL CATS to this vet again. This has sicked us!!
I would rather see the dermal punch than what a local vet did to a beautiful feral we trapped…she “whacked off” more than one third of the top of the ear. We had complained that the previous trapped feral had been “overclipped”; jagged and crooked!! This little girl we trapped had apparently been done a few months before. We had paid to not clip the ear in hopes of socializing and having her adopted.This failed and she was released. She did enter a trap again. When we brought her to the vet, we explained that she “possibly had been spayed a few months before…please look for the scar” The vet obviously wanted to make a point to us…the kitty was reopened and the ear was mutiliated! Needless to say, we shall not take our trapped cats or OUR PERSONAL CATS to this vet again. This has sicked us!!
My boxer has a bright green tattoo on her belly to show she’s been chipped. They could’ve done something a little different with the cat, but in the end it’s all for a good reason.
My boxer has a bright green tattoo on her belly to show she’s been chipped. They could’ve done something a little different with the cat, but in the end it’s all for a good reason.