The man in the apartment below mine had a small dog whose vocal cords
had been severed. (I agree, it's a barbarous measure - he had also had
"dental surgery" to remove his "fangs".) They'd been living downstairs
for quite a while before I realized those hacking noises were not a
large cat with a hairball problem. The surgery didn't stop the dog from
TRYING to bark, just substituted one sound for another. Wouldn't it have
made better sense to simply train the dog not to bark at the slightest
provocation? (They call it "obedience training", but of course it
requires a little effort on the part of the dog's owner.)

There's been a striking change in the urban environment since I arrived
in Scotland in 1976. You don't hear dogs barking anywhere near as much.
I suspect the main reason is that their owners treat them more kindly than
they used to. Surgery like you're describing would get a vet struck off
and criminally prosecuted in the UK.

(You also don't hear birds chirping at dawn - but that's because they're
nearly extinct. Dog numbers haven't changed much).

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Jack Campin, 11 Third Street, Newtongrange, Midlothian EH22 4PU, Scotland
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