Has anyone ever heard of this?

[paganlib]

My daughter recently got a cat from someone she works with. 
My daughter took the cat -Spooky- to the vets to get him
fixed. The vet asked my daughter if she wanted an implant for
Spooky.  My daughter said no because Spooky was going to be an
inside cat, etc.  She also told the vet that before she got
Spooky, he was a stray.  She called later in the day to check
on Spooky and they said that the operation went fine and that
they had clipped his ear.  She was at work and didn't have
time to ask them what the clipping of the ear was about.  My
other daughter picked Spooky up, got him home and out of the
carrier and discovered that about a third of one ear was cut
off!  It looks terrible!  Spooky went in yesterday - Saturday
- and so we haven't been able to call them and see why they
did that.  A friend said that they do that to feral cats to
show that they've been fixed.  I've never heard of this being
done before and I think it's awful.  I can't imagine why this
would be done to any animal.  We've all been upset and I'm
sure Spooky is not happy about having part of his ear gone.   
  

[Debau2005]

1. My cat

was a stray, I got her from a rescue that had her spayed. They didn't clip her ear!

[superduperfarleft]

2. This is a common thing done to cats.

It's so that if a rescue group comes across a stray, they don't attempt to spay or neuter him/her when it's already been done. Usually it's a nothing more than a small indentation, sounds like they may have butchered your poor cat.

Overall, though, since the intention is to prevent unneccessary surgery (and since rescue groups are not known to trust too many people to keep their cats inside, rightfully so) I'm all for it when it's done properly. Sounds like it wasn't in this case.

[LeftyMom]

3. They should have asked first.

It's absolutely not something that needs to be done with an indoor cat, former stray or no.

The point is to keep ferals from being trapped a second time for altering with a visual cue that they've already gone to the vet. That said, it sounds like they did too much even in that case.

[paganlib]

4. Thanks for the feedback........

As I said in my post I'd never heard of this before.  A small
indentation would have been fine but......  In any case,
Spooky is a part of our family now and we love him no matter
what he looks like!

[blondie58]

5. I have an older tuxedo boy cat that I got from the Denver Dumb Friends League

who is neutered and Oreo also has a clipped ear. It is very common and an easy way to know whether the cat has been neutered. I thought it was cruel at first, but I don't think that they would do it if it was truly painful and cruel. It does seem odd to me though, that they did it knowing that he was going to a home already and would not be feral.

[stuntcat]

6. they totally should have asked you :(

That's just dumb to do without asking.
They thought that since the cat had been a stray once that you might not be serious about keeping it? Dumb.
There's one cat in my neighborhood that's marked that way and I think it's totally a good idea, just for ferals though.

Spooky will still be beautiful! someday I bet you won't notice the funny ear anymore.

(This would be a good thread to post a picture on... hinthint*)