Depriving a dog of their freedom to speak by "debarking" them is legal?

[Nevernose]

64. Good call on the anxiety issues

When I first met my wife, she had to go out of town for an emergency. I said I'd watch her dogs, she brought them and their cage over, and in my know-it-all-ness I refused to lock them up while I was at work. One major fit of separation anxiety and an entire couch later, I put them in the cage whenever we go out. Turns out they prefer it.

Also, as it turns out, the way I treated her dogs (now our dogs) is one of the reasons she married me -- that and I was the first straight, single man that had stairs so his chihuahua could get in bed at night. The anxiety dog, by the way, had never really bonded with a human until I came along. She's sitting on my lap right now, and probably will be until I go to work on Monday.

I don't know what Sam-E is, or what section I should look in.