The American Kennel Club has certain "breed standards" that dictate how each breed should look if it's pure bred. Sadly, some of those standard require medically unnecessary, painful surgeries for dogs. We are asking the AKC to reconsider these breed standards.
Some of the sickest practices are ear cropping, tail docking and dewclaw removal. In ear cropping, they essentially cut a dog's ears so that they stand up straight. In tail docking, a portion of the dog's tail is literally cut off just for looks. The dewclaw is an extra claw higher up on a dog's forepaw, it doesn't serve any purpose anymore evolutionarily, but it also isn't hurting anything, so choosing to remove it is just cruel.
All of these practices are used extensively in the US just so dogs can meet breed standards set by the AKC. If they were to change their standards, horrific practices like tail docking and ear cropping would certainly decline.
Much of Europe and Australia have already banned these practices, now we are calling on the AKC to do the right thing and end it themselves.
The AKC has the power to end this pain and suffering in animals, we expect that they do so.