Plastic Surgery for Pets
Plastic Surgery for Pets. Photo: Kenjonbro/Flickr.com
Imagine, a chin tuck for your chihuahua. A new schnoz for your schnauzer. A Botoxed basset hound. Suck the fat out of that poodle, for crying out loud! Rearrange that cat’s whiskers!
Folks, have we gone completely mad?
Plastic Surgery for Pets
Plastic surgery for pets is a growing phenomenon. There’s some shady work being done, but the truth is, most procedures are medically necessary, or at least not performed solely for vanity’s sake.
Galia Berry of Maryland, for example, remembers the time several years ago when her dog Sandy got a nip and tuck. As Sandy got older, his lips started drooping, trapping bits of food in the folds of skin and creating a stinking mess. The vet gave Berry two options: shave the dog’s facial hair and clean his mouth after every single meal, or put Sandy on the operating table.
“A face lift for my dog, who has sagging lips,” Berry recounted in her blog. “Please tell me I am dreaming, that my life has not become a theater of the absurd. … I can see it now: someone will ask me my dog’s name, and I’ll have to say (in a matter-of-fact sort of way, as though nothing in the world could be more obvious), “Why, that’s Sandy: The Dog With The Sagging Lips.”
Dr. Alan Schulman, an orthopedic veterinarian surgeon in Los Angeles, is widely known as “veterinarian to the stars.” He said he has gotten plenty of requests for plastic surgery for pets but wouldn’t do the work without a good medical reason.
Among the procedures Schulman has performed are the equivalents of eyelifts, face lifts, rhinoplasty and abdominoplasty. Pets are usually hospitalized overnight, and the owners have ponied up about $1,000 per procedure.
Common procedures:
- Nose jobs: to fix breathing problems in breeds such as pugs, bulldogs and Boston terriers.
- Eyelifts: to stop eyelids from rolling inward in breeds such as chow and sharpei.
- Chin lifts: to correct excessive drooling in large breeds such as Newfoundlands and bloodhounds.
Dr. Jennifer Gabriele of the Heart of Chelsea Animal Hospital in Manhattan said she rarely performs cosmetic surgeries, but that skin tags are owners’ biggest complaint. The tiny appendages that hang from the paw on pinschers and poodles (also known as the dew-claw) don’t get in the way, but some people are bothered by them enough to have them surgically removed.
Then there are the certified nut cases. Cox News Service reported in 2005 on a veterinarian in Brazil who is enthusiastically altering the physical appearance of pets. “Plastic surgery is good for dogs!” Dr. Edgado Brito told the news service, adding that making a pet more attractive improves its relationship with the owner.
The Brazilian doc can straighten droopy ears or make straight ears droop. He can un-invert eyelashes with a dash of Botox. He has even tightened the breasts of female dogs who have given birth — yep, a doggie boob job.
One of the more perplexing trends is the wide availability of fake testicles for dogs. Starting at $129 for a couple of basic midsize Neuticles, plus surgery costs, your neutered pooch can be himself again. Top-of-the-line models fetch $1,799 per pair.
These fake balls have been bouncing around for years now. More than 100,000 dogs, cats (yes, CATS), horses and bulls are sporting the plastic, “crafted based on the firmness of actual animal testicles,” according to CTI Corp., the company that manufactures them.
Jeff Lane, a happy customer from Oak Park, Ill., said his dog “not only looks the same but doesn’t know he’s missing anything.”
A local vet cautioned, however, that Neuticles may present a risk of infection.
Other nutty procedures include laser depilation to enhance the looks of “hairless” cats. If your pet has an overbite, there are dozens of certified veterinary dental clinics across the country that can correct it with orthodontic braces. There are even root canals for ferrets, said Dr. Jan Bellows of the All Pets Dental Clinic in Weston, Fla. And rest assured, some moron’s pet has no doubt endured teeth-whitening treatment. After all, what’s a great dog without a great smile? And what’s next — dentures for dogs?
People have been altering pets for ages, docking their tails and cropping their ears to fit breed profiles since Victorian times, and, more recently, getting cats declawed to protect now-antique Victorian furniture.
Declawing is painful enough to consider (and on the rise, according to Dr. Gabriele), but what jackwad gets a dog de-barked? That’s right, there are people living among us who have decided enough is enough with all the barking and, well, it’s just time to have the doc take out those pesky doggie vocal chords.
The plastic surgery for pets trend has brought howls of protests from animal-rights activists, who say pets are being subjected to unnecessary pain and suffering.
The Humane Society is just one such organization that has railed against frivolous pet surgeries. “We oppose any … unnecessary surgical procedure that is painful, distressful or restrictive of the function of the body part involved when done for cosmetic purposes or to disguise natural imperfections of any animal,” the group said in a statement.
But not everyone agrees. The American Kennel Club, for example, fought successfully against proposed legislation in New York state to ban ear cropping and tail docking, saying it should be up to animal owners and veterinarians to make those decisions, not the government.
