@2DogsFarm - AGREED on those wretched scotch-bottom shoes. Oy the damage they do, not mention all the chemicals from the bondo.
Docking tails is old practice and totally unnecessary. Glad that they’ve stopped it. A lovely, properly plaited tail bun should be done instead.
@Rackonteur - LOOOOOVE the gorgeous Suffolk Punch picture you shared. Still want one some day. 
Illegal only in ten states.
Ugh.
Haven’t checked lately, but even beastiality isn’t illegal in all states.
Declawing cats is illegal in NY, I believe.
Not sure where else.
So is altering horse tails. However, that law is ignored. Ask me how I know! 
I’ve always loved a well-done mud tail. Don’t know why they haven’t always done them.
I can guess that when most horses were draft or carriage horses, and were in work most of their lives, it was a lot less labor to dock them than to braid up their tails every day.
That makes sense.
I just wish Budweiser would have made a different choice, since I wouldn’t think their Clydes are in work daily, all day like typical work or carriage horses.
yeah, and it’s not like they don’t have the crew to do it. I watched a video of the tack up and hook up of the whole team (and then the whole thing in reverse, loaded on the trailers and driven away), and they seriously had about four people per horse.
If only the entire draft industry would do the same.
Oh PETA!
While you’re at it PETA, please stop dairy farmers from cutting off tails. That’s horrible.
PETA would turn the Clydes and cows loose.
True. They would.
Please do not mention that hateful group here 
Not docking tails in dairy should be headed your way soon. It’s already been a thing in Canada for a few years now and extends to not shaving off switches which was a thing to get near the results of a docked tail without docking.
Tail docking of dairy cows has all but stopped in the US. The milk co-ops (companies that purchase the milk from the producers) will not buy from farms that dock tails. So, while it’s not a law, if a producer wants to sell milk, they cannot dock tails. The few producers who process their own milk would not have to abide by this rule.
You might still see cows that had their tails docked before this co-op rule went into effect.
excuse my ignorance, but why in the world would you dock a dairy cow’s tail?
If hand-milking, or even hooking to the machine, a tail to the face can hurt!
But yeah, docking still barbaric 
the switch often gets full of clumps of mud and manure.
If they swish their tail while you’re trying to clean off the udder when milking, it makes a mess.
If you’re standing in the pit of the parlor, you’re at just the right height to get smacked upside the head with it.
Keeping the tails cleaner is more work, but it seems to me to be a far better option.
As has been said, fortunately it’s waning for multiple reasons.
To keep bacteria counts in milk down. There are other solutions to not getting e-coli and whatever else in milk, but docking was a super easy and long lasting method.
I watched them harness and hitch at the National Western Stock Show one year. They are certainly not short of people. My friend couldn’t understand my fascination. She kept saying she was cold. Well, yeah, winter in Denver, what would you expect? Especially during Stock Show. When the temperature plunges in January, everybody says “Yup. Stock Show weather!”
Rebecca
Yep, I watched the whole video which was probably thirty minutes of unloading, hitching, and then doing the whole thing in reverse, with complete absorption.
Do you have a link? I’d like to see the video.
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