How to say "to mutilate" in Japanese


I tried to look it up in a dictionary, on jisho.org and also by googling for
it but I couldn't find out how to say "to mutilate" in Japanese.

I really need this word since it's legal here to crop animal's tails and ears,
declaw cats and apparently it's common to chop off part of a cat's ear to
"mark" the cat.

I desperately need to be able to say "Mutilating animals is considered a crime
in Europe" and "I'd never adopt a mutilated animal" because I'm sure I'll soon
again be in a situation where I want to say these things.




By mutilation, are you referring to the intentional removal of a part of tail
or ears, as described in [this Wikipedia
article](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Docking_\(animal\))? (I mean, not for an
abusive purpose but for historical/practical reasons?)

Then corresponding and technical-sounding _nouns_ for this seem to be 断尾【だんび】
(tail cropping) and 断耳【だんじ】 (ear cropping). There seems to be no specific
single verb for this, but you can say "断尾・断耳を行【おこな】う", "(耳/尻尾の一部を)切除【せつじょ】する"
or "切【き】る" anyway.

Sources:

  * [犬の断耳](http://www.koinuno-heya.com/seikei/cropping.html)
  * [断耳・断尾とは - 必要？不要？](http://wanwans.com/new/ear-cropping-tail-docking)
  * [断耳・断尾ってなに？【動物まめ知識】](http://www.petjpr.com/column/news-bin/Detail.cgi?rgst=00000174&CatgM=4)

However, I think ordinary Japanese people are not familiar with this custom in
the first place (and that's one of the reasons why these are not explicitly
banned in Japan, I guess). So even if these words exist, you may not make
yourself understood by these, before explaining it.

耳を削【そ】ぐ means the total removal of an external ear, and sounds to me as if it
were for an abusive/vindictive purpose.

