Piercing the cats ears seems completely ok. Piercing the tail seems a bit much, especially since the article said that it would cause the cat’s tail to fall off. A cat’s tail is needed for balance and agility, and the slow process would seem to be painful. To spend the time in using Sheriffs and State officers for this appears to be a bit stupid. The local animal control officer should have been sent over to see the condition of the animals. If the condition looked fine, I would have no problem with the ear piercing but would need a vet’s input on the rest. This could easily have been done through the animal control officer, as is done in my county in Florida. To turn this into some big “raid” is rather stupid and a waste of law enforcement resources. Think about the fact not only of the piercings teenagers can get and parents who pierce their babies, but what about having baby boys “trimmed” before they leave the hospital? In terms of animals, what about clipping birds’ wings to keep them from flying off? Again, I say this is way overblown.
It’s not ok to pierce a cat or dogs ears. They get caught on things and it gets infected. I agree about just using AC&C in this case.